Season of Vengeance
by michael1812
Summary: Sequel to the story Die Me, They Got To Me. Crichton faces certain death as the two mayor powers in the universe, Scarrans and Peacekeepers, want him dissected for the knowledge he possesses...
1. Silence

The way Scorpius looked in his eyes was the most terrifying thing he ever saw.  
"No, sir." the doctor nervously answered his question. "He cannot be transported. His body is too fragile at the moment."  
"I do not care about his body." Scorpius said as he walked around the operating-table.  
"I am only interested in his mind."

John Robert Crichton Jr. lay unconscious on the table.  
He had been floating in outer space for at least 3 hours before he was rescued and captured by a Peacekeeper Marauder, who was still flying around the asteroid-field.  
With an incredible loss of oxygen and his body frozen by the vacuum of space, he was transported to the planet of Yo'brakh, a Peacekeeper controlled planet, where he is now a prisoner of Scorpius, the man who has been hunting him down for the past year and a half to get the wormhole-knowledge that Crichton has locked away in his mind.

"He has fallen into a coma," the surgeon continued. "...and we don't know if he will ever get out of it."  
Scorpius sighed as he opened the eyes of the unconscious Crichton.  
Crichton didn't respond.  
The only thing that convinced the doctors that he was alive, was his heart, which miraculously was still beating.  
"Can he withstand mindprobing?" Scorpius asked.  
His leather body-suit reflected the bright lights which emitted from the huge lamps above the operating-table.  
"We have never seen his physiology before." The surgeon answered. "It is similar to a Sebacean's, but many things are different."  
Scorpius did not sound satisfied.  
"You did not answer my question." he said chilling. "Can he withstand mindprobing?"  
The surgeon looked at his colleagues, but they didn't know it either.  
"Honestly sir," the surgeon answered. "...we have no idea how his body would react."

"Luitenant Bracca." Scorpius suddenly said.  
From the shadows a man suddenly appeared.  
His eyes showed his loyalty to Scorpius.  
"Yes, sir?" luitenant Bracca answered.  
"Get the equipment from the Marauder." Scorpius said.  
"Yes, sir."

Several star-systems away a damaged Leviathan followed her son, also a Leviathan, to a planet covered in ice.  
"I have contacted the Diagnosian." Captain Bialar Crais told the crew of Moya.  
"He has agreed to help Moya."  
The crew of Moya just nodded silently at Crais.  
Crais understood why.  
"Thank you, Crais." Aeryn Sun finally replied.  
Her voice was friendly, but shaky.  
You could tell she was just recovering from a traumatic experience.  
Crais nodded to Aeryn, and his face disappeared from the screen.  
"Maybe the Diagnosian should take a look at you too." D'Argo said to Aeryn, but she refused any help.  
"I'm fine, D'Argo. I'll recover."  
She would never accept any help again, remembering what Zhaan had done to save her life.  
She sacrificed herself.  
"I don't need help." Aeryn said finally, and left Command.  
She wanted to be alone.

Rygel, D'Argo and Chiana took a Transport Pod to the planet's surface.  
As they soared through the freezing atmosphere, they were reminded of their loss, for which they did not have the time to mourn.  
Zhaan was dead.  
Crichton was dead.  
Death and pain have been so common these last few days.  
It felt so strange to feel peace again.  
It wasn't the same without Zhaan and Crichton.  
Without their friends.

But they had other matters on their minds.  
Moya was burned, battered, blown up, and tired.  
They all promised to help her get healed.  
And now they were going to keep their promise.

But while they flew across the heavens, down to the planet, they did not notice the small alien craft flying beside them, landing just out of sight.  
Neither D'Argo, Rygel or Chiana saw the wounded Scarran climb out of the craft: an escape-pod.


	2. Cold

Commander Moxan was not pleased.  
Not at all.

"What is the meaning of this?" he asked as he witnessed luitenant Bracca set up a strange contraption or device in the middle of the huge hallway.  
"This is my Aurora Chair." Scorpius suddenly answered as he walked casually towards the confused and frightened Moxan.  
Scorpius knew that Commander Moxan feared him, and he used it to his advantage.  
"Aurora Chair?" Commander Moxan asked. "What is it? Some kind of interrogations-device ?"  
Scorpius looked at him.  
Commander Moxan was smarter then he looked.  
"No commander," Scorpius said chilling. "My Aurora Chair is much more then that."

Several scientists and doctors in white, leather coats carried the unconscious body of John Crichton on a stretcher to the Aurora Chair.  
As Scorpius made his final modifications to the improvised Chair, the surgeons placed Crichton in the chair, and strapped him down as Scorpius requested.  
"That'll be all." Scorpius said to them and they moved away from the chair, only to watch from the sidelines how this experiment will progress.  
If something should go wrong, they could intervene immediately and stop the experiment.  
Just like Scorpius wanted them to do.  
Crichton was far too valuable to die.  
Scorpius would do anything to prevent Crichton taking the wormhole-knowledge to his grave.

Luitenant Bracca leaned towards the unconscious Crichton and grabbed his head softly.  
"I know you can hear me, Crichton." he said, and smiled.  
He had waited for this moment so long.  
It would've been more fun if he were conscious, but an unconscious Crichton would do just fine for Bracca.  
"We finally got you." Bracca whispered in Crichton's ear.  
"Now let's see how you escape out of this one."  
He let go of Crichton's head and joined the scientists standing besides the machine, watching how Scorpius activated the machine and put some kind of headset over his head and eyes.  
The process had begun.

As D'Argo, Rygel and Chiana stepped out of the Transport Pod and entered the structure in front of them, a large facility which was entirely carved out of the ice, a strange looking creature welcomed them.  
"I hope the landing wasn't too uncomfortable?" he asked.  
All three of them couldn't stand looking at the creature for too long, because the creature was hideous and smelled disgusting.  
"It was all right." D'Argo answered. "Can we skip the small talk and go straight to the business?"  
"Splendid." The creature said and pointed them to the large doors in front of them.  
They entered a large room were tables and chair were also entirely carved out of ice and were part of the structure.  
"It's freezing in here." Chiana said.  
She was wearing her warmest and fattest coat and clothing, but it didn't mean a thing in this cold environment.  
"You'll get used to it." The creature told her kindly but nasty.  
As he smiled to her, Chiana quickly looked away.  
"My name is Grunchlik." The creature spoke.  
"I am a servant of the Diagnosian, but I consider myself also his friend and manager."  
"Manager?" Rygel said to him.  
He didn't look forward negotiating and talking about business with this ugly looking and disgusting person.  
But he would if he had to.  
"As the doctor cannot understand a word of any alien language beside his own, he relies on me to discuss business with his clients."  
He sat down at the head of one of the tables and D'Argo and Chiana decided to do the same.  
Rygel floated besides Grunchlik and listened to his every word.  
As a Dominar, he did not like to be so close to a creature like Grunchlik, with no respect for him or anyone of noble birth (Rygel considered Grunchlik a peasant the second he saw him), but if he were to have any successful bargain with this person, he had to know with whom he was dealing with.  
"Can he not use translator-microbes?" D'Argo asked.  
"No," Gruncklik answered. "The Doc is very allergic. To all kinds of things.  
We decided it was for the best that he did not take them."  
"Can we meet the Diagnosian?" Chiana asked.  
"All in due time, sweetheart." Grunchlik said to her, smiling his nasty flirtatious smile at her, which made Chiana look away immediately.  
"The Doc is busy right now, working on another patient of his, but he will see all of you when he is done."  
Suddenly a high pitched alarm went off.  
The crew looked around to see where it came from, but it appeared to come from the watch around Grunchlik's arm.  
"Excuse me," he said. "I think the Doc needs some assistance. Please make yourselves comfortable whilst I am away."  
He stood up, apologising for his sudden departure, and left their sights as he opened and closed the doors.  
"Do you think we can trust him?" D'Argo asked Rygel.  
"I think he is a slimeball and a filthy slug," the Dominar concluded.  
"But I think that when money is concerned he will do us no harm."

Miles above them, on Moya, Aeryn Sun lay agonised on her bed, seeing visions of Crichton and Zhaan flashing before her eyes.  
And her mother...  
"Aeryn..." a voice suddenly said.  
Aeryn opened her eyes fiercely, thinking at first her mother was calling her again, just like in the dream she always had.  
The dream that turned out not to be a dream...  
But as she turned her head she noticed Crais standing in front of her quarters and opening the doors.  
"I have been comming you," the fugitive Peacekeeper captain said to her as he slowly entered her quarters. "...but you did not answer."  
"I was sleeping." Aeryn said.  
She lied.  
She turned and twisted under the sheets of her bed, but could not find the rest she eagerly wanted.  
"I just wanted to ask you something." Crais said as he watched Aeryn got up, still covered in the sheets of her bed which she clutched in her fists.  
"But this is not the proper time." he suddenly said. "I will wait until you have made yourself decent. I am sorry if I woke you up."  
As he turned around and wanted to leave Aeryn's quarters, Aeryn stopped him.  
"Wait." she said.  
Through her voice Crais heard the strength of her former self. The old Aeryn Sun.  
"You did not wake me." Aeryn said. "I couldn't sleep anyway...  
What did you want to ask me?"  
Crais sighed. He was relieved that he was allowed to speak to her.  
"It's about Talyn." Crais said.  
"He refuses my help...his emotions...his anger...they have become to much to endure.  
I ask your help, officer Sun."  
Aeryn nodded.  
"I will see what I can do." she said. "I would do everything in my power to help him."  
"Talyn knows. That's why I know that he will accept your help."  
Aeryn smiled at the Peacekeeper captain.  
It has been a while since she had smiled.  
"Now if you will excuse me," Aeryn said. "I'd like to freshen myself up."  
"Yes of course." Crais said. "I will wait for you at Command."  
"Thank you."

Crais left her quarters, but Aeryn did not move.  
As the sheets fell off of her body it became clear that Aeryn went to bed with all of her clothes on. Even her boots.  
She wiped away her tears and put her hands through her hair.  
"I love you..." a voice suddenly said.  
It faded away in the silence that followed.  
She recognised the voice.

As Crais left the corridor which lead to Aeryn's quarters and headed for Command, he was stopped by Jothee.  
His angry gaze pierced right through Crais.  
"What were you doing in Aeryn's quarters?" he asked.  
Jothee has never trusted a Peacekeeper, and he wasn't going to start now.  
Crais smiled and turned his head.  
"That's none of your concern, boy." he said.  
"Perhaps. But I would still like to know."  
Crais sighed.  
"I had a brief conversation with officer Sun. Is that what you wanted to know?"  
"Was staring at her through her door, for at least an arn, really necessary if you just wanted to talk to her?"  
Crais left the corridor without saying anything.


	3. Scorpius

Artokh's blood boiled in the cold air of this unknown planet.  
As he ripped the door off of the escape-pod he felt the freezing wind blow into his face.  
He didn't like it, but Artokh knew that he had to endure it, to survive.

At first Artokh underestimated the Leviathan that pursued him.  
He tried to lose him as he flew through the asteroid-field of the Yo'brakh system, but Talyn did not let him go that easily.  
As the first shots were fired Artokh knew that he was going to die.  
He did not fear death, but he refused to die for such a inferior species.  
This John Crichton.

Artokh quickly headed for the escape-pod.  
He tried to take Crichton with him, but there was no time.  
If John Crichton was a hazard to the Scarran Empire, then his death would mean a victory for the Empire.  
He left, leaving Crichton to die in the explosion.  
But he didn't die.

As he captured Crichton on Moya, he placed a small probe underneath the human's skin.  
This would emit co-ordinates and vital signs to a device which Artokh now held in his claws, as he walked through the snow.  
The device was broken during the landing onto the planet, but Artokh was able to fix it partially.  
Although it did not emit the co-ordinates of the human's whereabouts, it did give óne signal:  
a heartbeat.  
John Crichton was alive.  
And Artokh intended to find him, in order to complete his mission.

But before he could do that, he needed to contact the Scarran Emperor.

He saw a large structure in front of him, embedded into the mountainside, entirely made out of ice.  
Artokh knew that he could find whatever he needed there.  
A communications-device.  
Crichton's friends...  
"They must know Crichton's whereabouts..."

Inside the structure, Grunchlik introduced D'Argo, Chiana and Rygel to the Diagnosian.  
The long, bold creature wore a mask and spoke in a strange manner to them, using mostly his hands to communicate.  
"As you may see, he is not a very social person." Grunchlik joked.  
"That is why I must ask you to tell me all about your problems..."  
D'Argo hesitated.  
"And you will tell him?" he asked.  
"Of course I will!" Grunchlik said. "He is the doctor here, not me!"  
"Wait a minute." Chiana interrupted. "You can speak to him? He can understand you?"  
"I can speak Diagnosian. Can you?"  
"No..." Chiana said.  
"Then shut up, you little vixen!" Grunchlik said smiling sarcastically.  
D'Argo almost smiled for a second, but held back.  
Rygel didn't care and laughed out loud.  
"I always try to get her to shut up," Rygel said. "...but she never listens!"  
Grunchlik laughed.  
His rotten teeth were visible as he did it.  
It almost made Chiana vomit.  
"Now," Grunchlik asked. "...what can I do for you?"

After they told Grunchlik about their situation, Grunchlik excused himself again and took the Diagnosian with him to the hallway, where their new clients couldn't hear their conversation.  
"It's a Leviathan!" Grunchlik told the Diagnosian.  
"I knew this was going to be our lucky day! A Luxan, a Nebari, a Hynerian,...it all adds up!  
They are probably wealthy! Absolutely rich, if the rumours about that Shadow Depository is true! They are probably desperate! We could make a fortune here, ripping them off!  
And Crichton could be there as well! Which reminds me..."  
Grunchlik ran off.

FLASH.

Scorpius slowly walked through the mist of John Crichton's mind.  
He took a great risk entering this unstable mind; it could destabilise any second, and take Scorpius's mind down with it.

"Can you hear me?" Scorpius mumbled in the outside world.  
The scientists thought he was talking to Crichton in his mind, but he was wrong.  
He was looking for someone else.  
The fog slowly lifted and a huge and shiny lake stretched out in front of Scorpius's mind.  
Earth's moon reflected in the bright water.  
Scorpius walked on a pier. In the distance he saw the silhouette of a figure, standing at the end of the pier, looking down at the water.  
Scorpius recognised the figure.  
Because it was his own.  
"Scorpius I presume." Harvey said as he turned around. "We meet at last."  
"Indeed." Scorpius said.  
A cold wind was blowing through the trees.  
"Is Crichton dying?" Scorpius asked.  
"Yes." Harvey answered. "And so am I.  
With my limited resources I have been able to sustain Crichton's life sign.  
But as my power is fading, so is Crichton's life."  
"And so is the wormhole-knowledge he possesses."  
"True."  
"Can I extract the chip?" Scorpius asked.  
"Without damaging the contents?" Harvey asked.  
"Of course." Scorpius said.  
"No." Harvey said. "If you try to extract it now, Crichton will die before the procedure will be finished."  
Scorpius looked at the bristling water of the lake.  
Desperate he was looking for another way.  
Another way to get the knowledge he wanted so badly.  
Wormholes.  
"How much have you uncovered?" Scorpius asked.  
"Almost everything." Harvey answered. "Some things are burrowed into his mind too deeply and take too much time and energy to extract. Energy I cannot afford to lose."  
Scorpius stared into the distance.

FLASH.

Scorpius severed his mindlink to Crichton and ended the process.  
He got what he wanted to know.

But he didn't know that Harvey was lying.


	4. Free

"Crais?"  
Aeryn walked into Command and was surprised to see that nobody was there.  
"Pilot?" she asked. "Where is Captain Crais?"  
It took a while for Pilot responded.  
"Crais has returned to Talyn." Pilot answered slowly.  
"He requests your presence there."

Aeryn bowed her head, thinking about Crais's request.

"You shouldn't trust him." Jothee said suddenly, as he appeared in the doorway.  
"What?" Aeryn said to him.  
"You shouldn't trust Crais." he repeated to her.  
Aeryn looked at her with her cold eyes.  
"You can't trust Crais." Jothee said firm.  
"You sound like Crichton." Aeryn said to him.  
She didn't even notice it at first.  
This was the first time she mentioned Crichton´s name, since his death.  
As new tears started to grow in her eyes, Jothee bowed his head.  
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..."  
"I know Jothee." Aeryn said.  
"I didn't want to upset you." Jothee went on, "I just wanted to help."  
"I don't need help, Jothee." Aeryn said. "And I do not need your protection."  
She walked out, heading for the hangar-bay.

As Aeryn was about to board a Transport-Pod, on the planet below her Chiana was left alone with D'Argo as Rygel went out to search for Grunchlik.  
Both of them sat on opposite ends of the table, desperately avoiding eye-contact with each other.  
But Chiana hated these uncomfortable silences. Especially concerning her ex-lover.  
"Do you hate me?" she asked the Luxan.  
D'Argo's eyes slowly drifted towards her.  
Again he was reminded of something he was desperately trying to forget.  
"I need to know." Chiana asked again. "Do you hate me? Because I don't want you to hate me..."  
"I don't hate you." D'Argo interrupted as he looked kindly but painful in her beautiful eyes.  
Those were the most kindest and relieving words Chiana has ever heard in her life.  
She immediately felt a lot better.  
"...but I will never love you..." D'Argo added sadly, with cold words.  
"Never again."  
Chiana began to cry, but she wiped them away swiftly, knowing that this was her punishment, for the crime she committed: breaking D'Argo's heart.  
"I am willing to put my life in your hands." D'Argo finally said.  
"But not my heart."

Rygel suddenly zoomed into the room on his levitating throne, breaking the tension in the room as he entered.  
"I have just had a conversation with that horrible creature, Grunchlik..." he said loudly to them.  
"And?" D'Argo asked.  
"We will pay 17.000 crendars for Moya's treatment." Rygel said.  
"You were supposed to haggle, Rygel!" Chiana shouted at him.  
"That is an awful large amount of money!"  
Rygel just smiled at her as he waved her words away.  
"I have managed to get something extra for that money."  
"Like what?" Chiana asked.  
"A ship." Rygel answered luxuriously.  
D'Argo and Chiana just stared at him.  
"Why buy another ship, Rygel?" Chiana said. "Are you planning on leaving Moya?"  
"Perhaps I am." Rygel said.  
"With Crichton dead," he explained. "we will no longer be hunted throughout the universe."  
"But we are still fugitives!" D'Argo said.  
"The Peacekeepers will forget about us!" Rygel said. "They don't care about a bunch of escaped prisoners! The only thing that kept us from returning to our homeworlds, was Scorpius. Don't try and contradict me!  
If it weren't for Crichton, the Peacekeepers would've given up on us a long time ago!  
Crichton was the only reason why we were still hunted down like animals, and now he's dead! Scorpius won't hunt us anymore! We are free men at last! Crichton should've died many years ago, that way we all would have been better off!"  
"DON'T SAY THAT!" Chiana shouted to Rygel as he said those words.  
Rygel looked at the ground.  
"Sorry, you're right. I shouldn't have said that. And certainly not out loud."  
"Perhaps you are right." D'Argo suddenly said to Rygel, to Chiana's surprise.  
"We are no longer being hunted. I could go back to the Luxan homeworld, find Macton..."  
"I'm not leaving Moya!" Chiana said.  
"That's easy for you to say!" Rygel said. "Your homeworld wants you dead! You would gladly stay on Moya, because you have nowhere else to go!"  
"So you intend to leave Moya as soon as she's healed?" Chiana said to them. "You intend to abandon her and Pilot after all these years?"  
"We are not abandoning her," Rygel cunningly said to Chiana. "Yóu are staying, aren't you?"  
Chiana didn't know what to say.  
"So you really want to leave Moya?" Chiana said to D'Argo. "Do you really have no other reason to stay?"  
D'Argo looked her straight in the eyes as he said it.  
"There's nothing for me on Moya anymore."  
"Only death." Rygel added.

Aeryn docked her Transport-Pod in Talyn's docking-bay.  
Quickly she left the hangar and walked past the dark red walls of Talyn towards his Command Deck, where Crais was waiting for her.  
She noticed how large Talyn had become over the years.  
Aeryn still remembered when he was still a baby, with nothing more then a few chambers and his Command Deck.  
Now Talyn has a docking-bay, sleeping-quarters for passengers, a common room, and hallways that stretched out for miles, it seemed.  
Talyn's doors opened automatically as she approached them.  
Aeryn knew she was being expected.

"Thank you for coming, Aeryn." Crais said to her, welcoming her aboard Talyn again.  
"Talyn really appreciates your help."  
"But I haven't done anything yet." she said.  
"Coming here at our request shows that you have good intentions. That you love him."  
Aeryn didn't notice how Crais's eyes began to glow as he stopped talking.  
"It's hard nót to love something as beautiful as Talyn."  
Some lights flickered and a short and low sound was heard.  
"Talyn thanks you for saying that." Crais said, interpreting the sounds of Talyn to Aeryn.  
"I myself feel that only Peacekeepers can truly understand Talyn's beauty."  
Crais smiled.  
"Talyn is a Leviathan, a peaceful and caring creature, harnessed with Sebacean technology and weapons. This makes him truly a Peacekeeper."  
Crais wanted to say more, but his eyes revealed that something was happening.  
"What is that Talyn?" he said with a loud voice. "A transmission? Where is it coming from? Let's hear it!"

A rumbling voice was suddenly heard on Talyn's Command Deck.  
Aeryn's heart jumped as she recognised who it was.  
"The signal is Scarran." Crais said. "And it's coming from the planet's surface!"


	5. Alive

The Scarran Artokh finally found what he was looking for.  
He could not find a door to enter the facility, and so he was forced to create one himself.  
He melted away one of the walls of ice with his bare hands.  
The hot Scarran blood that ran through his veins made sure the wall disappeared quickly into the ground as it turned into a liquid substance.  
After he successfully infiltrated the building he scanned for high concentrations of energy fields, generated by devices that would need a lot of energy.  
Devices like a long range communicator.  
And Artokh found it, and he used it to contact the Scarran homeworld.  
His first attempt to establish a communications-link with his Scarran Emperor failed, as the communicator did not have enough capabilities to reach that far into space.  
For that reason Artokh decided to search for Scarran signals closer to his location.  
And strangely enough he found one.  
"This is War Minister Akhna, commanding the Scarran Dreadnought "Executor". Who are you?"  
The female Scarran who appeared on the screen was of small stature, but her appearance made up for her size.  
She was terrifying and the look in her eyes demanded obedience from everyone who spoke to her.  
There were few who could look in her eyes without feeling inferior to her.  
"My name is Artokh." The Scarran said with his rumbling voice. "I request that you redirect my signal immediately to the Emperor."  
"What for?" War Minister Akhna simply said.  
"I must speak to him," Artokh continued. "...but I myself am not able to contact him."  
War Minister Akhna gazed upon him with her burning gaze.  
"Perhaps you could tell me, and I can tell the Emperor." Akhna said.  
"My mission is confidential." Artokh answered. "Only the Emperor may hear my words."  
Akhna's suspicions were true.  
Emperor Staleek had sent this Scarran on a secret mission.  
She could use this new information to her own advantage.  
Against the Emperor.  
She hated him. She hated that she was his inferior. His subordinate.  
She should be Empress instead of him!  
Her father was Emperor of the Scarran Empire before Staleek.  
If he hadn't taken power into his own hands, Akhna would have been Empress!  
Instead, she is forced to grovel before him, obeying his words and commands.  
But when Staleek let's his guard down, she will take the power back to it's rightful heir.  
But unfortunately Emperor Staleek isn't a fool.  
He knows of her plans and intentions.  
Akhna wonders why he has not interfered in her plans yet...  
"Then our conversation is over." War Minister Ahkna said to Artokh, threatening that if he did not tell her, she would end the transmission.  
"No!" he shouted.  
Just as she wanted him to.  
"I will tell you, as long as you sent my report to the Emperor himself."  
"Agreed."

Captain Bialar Crais and Aeryn Sun listened silently how the Scarran Artokh sent his report to Akhna's Dreadnought.

It took a moment before Akhna had read his report.  
"You failed to capture John Crichton?" she asked when she was finished.  
"I did not expect the renegade Crais to be there. He shot me down before I could escape the system."  
"And so you used an escape-pod to escape the explosion?"

"It's the same Scarran that tried to capture Crichton!" Aeryn said to Crais.  
"I thought you killed him!"

"I did." Artokh answered War Minister Akhna.  
"And now you claim John Crichton did the same?"

Aeryn's heart began to race.

"No." Artokh said. "There was only one escape-pod, and I used it to escape the explosion."  
"But you claim..."  
"I say that Crichton jumped out of the vessel before it exploded."  
"This would mean that Crichton jumped into outer space! He cannot surive that long in space! He is probably dead by now!"  
She almost terminated the conversation, but there was something about Crichton that made her believe that he survived it.  
She had heard about him as well.  
The crazy human. The 'immortal'. The unknown species, hunted down by the traitor Scorpius...  
"He is not dead." The Scarran said.  
His rumbling voice echoed through the halls of ice.

And it also echoed through Aeryn Sun's soul.

"John Crichton is alive, War Minister." Artokh said. "This device confirms my claim."  
John Crichton's heartbeat was heard over the communications-channel.  
"Where is he?" Akhna asked.

John Robert Crichton Jr. kissed the lips of his love.  
"I love you." he whispered in her ear.  
Aeryn smiled.  
John smiled back as he grabbed her hands and put them on his body.  
He kissed her again. Lovingly. Passionate.  
Slowly they moved through the darkness of his mind.  
Dancing.  
She was wearing a beautiful black wedding-gown.  
He was wearing a shining white tuxedo.  
Together they danced through the darkness.  
Blind for everything but each other.  
Blind for pain. Blind for death. Blind for sorrow.

Aeryn Sun was dead.  
Dead because of him.  
Because he couldn't save her.  
Because he made a wrong decision.

Crichton blamed himself for her death.  
His sorrow consumed every inch of his body, until he no longer wanted to wake up.  
He wanted to die, just like Aeryn had.

Harvey respected John.  
He honoured him.  
His loyalty.  
His confidence.  
His love.  
Even his hope.  
But all these qualities are lost now.  
Faded away in the dying darkness of his mind.

Perhaps John should die.  
Perhaps he deserves his rest.  
Perhaps Harvey shouldn't have lied to Scorpius.  
Perhaps he should've let him transport him to the Command Carrier, so his brain could be dissected, so John could die.  
So Harvey would die.

"Should I sacrifice myself for the greater good?" Harvey asked himself, as he watched John dance with the imaginary Aeryn.  
"Should I sacrifice myself so that Scorpius gets what he wants? The wormhole-technology?"  
He hesitated.  
Some part of his existence did not want to die.  
It was afraid to die, but also to glad with life to wish it to end.  
But another part of Harvey would serve Scorpius willingly, loyal and without question.  
Even if it meant dying.  
But to which part should he listen?

Harvey lied to Scorpius, so it would ease Crichton's suffering.  
He felt that Crichton had already suffered enough.  
By Harvey's doing...

Was it compassion that made him do this?  
Save Crichton from unnecessary pain?  
"What a strange emotion..." Harvey said to himself.

But he would not lie any longer to his master.  
The life of this human is insignificant in comparison to Scorpius's plans with the wormhole-technology.  
He could stop the Scarran conquest, even destroy their threat to the universe!  
And perhaps, when they are all but extinct, then perhaps Scorpius will have his revenge.

"I do not know Crichton's whereabouts." Artokh said to the War Minister, who was many lightyears away on the Scarran Dreadnought "Executor", flying somewhere through space.  
"But I believe Crichton's companions do know where he is."  
"Find them. Interrogate them. And then capture Crichton. I want him alive."  
"Yóu want him alive, War Minister?" Artokh said.  
"You have a problem with your hearing, soldier?" Akhna said to him.  
"No, War Minister, but my mission is to bring Crichton before the Emperor, not before yóu!"  
"I am giving you new orders, soldier." Akhna said.  
"No-one can change my orders!" Artokh shouted at her. "No-one but Emperor Staleek!"  
Akhna's rage grew as she heard that name.  
"You will listen to me now! Capture Crichton and bring him before me!"  
"I do not have to listen to you!"  
"But you will have to!" Akhna said. "Because I am coming to you!"  
Artokh did not believe what he just heard.  
A Scarran War Minister who would travel deep into Peacekeeper territory with a Dreadnought!  
"You would declare war on the Sebaceans just to capture Crichton?" Artokh asked.  
"Not if no-one finds out about it!" Akhna said as she gave new co-ordinates to her pilot.  
"You better do as your told, soldier, or you will pay the price!"  
With those words War Minister Akhna ended the communications-link.

Aeryn and Crais could not believe what they just heard.  
"Crichton is alive..." Crais muttered.  
"A Scarran Dreadnought..." Aeryn said.

"But the worst is yet to come..." a voice suddenly said.  
Aeryn and Crais turned around, only to see a strange man standing in front of them.  
His eyes were blue and the look on his face seemed frozen. He showed no sign of any emotion.  
"Talyn!" Crais shouted.   
Several pulse-rifles came out of the walls of Talyn, aiming for the unknown man in front of them.  
"Wait!" Aeryn said. "Don't shoot!"  
The man in front of them stood there silently, staring at them, waiting for the right response.  
"I know him from somewhere..." Aeryn said.  
"State your identity!" Crais demanded from the unknown intruder.  
The man looked Sebacean, but both Aeryn and Crais knew he wasn't.  
They could feel it.  
The man stood there, as if frozen, in the centre of Talyn's Command Deck, unarmed and defenceless.  
"My name is..." the man spoke, and he spoke several unknown words and sounds that Aeryn and Crais could not understand.  
"But you can call me Jack."


	6. Frozen

"I remember you..." Aeryn said as she slowly walked towards the man. "You are Crichton's father...!"  
"I am not his father." Jack spoke quickly, correcting her observation. "I only use his form and image to present myself in this realm."  
"How did you enter this vessel undetected?" Crais asked him. "Tell me now!"  
Crais believed Jack to be a spy at first, which would explain the fact that he infiltrated Talyn without being noticed by his sensors, but Jack soon corrected Crais also.  
"I am not a spy." Jack said. "And to answer your question..."  
Jack pointed towards the window of Talyn, which looked out to space.  
As Crais turned around, he could not believe his eyes.

A giant, blue, shining wormhole blinded him as he looked out of the window.

"You came from the wormhole?" Crais asked.  
Jack did not answer him. He just nodded.

As Aeryn saw the wormhole stretch before her eyes, she knew that the she had seen it before.  
She recognised the planet that was visible on the other side of the wormhole...  
Earth.  
Crichton's homeplanet...

"Is it true?" Aeryn asked softly. Hopefully.  
"Is Crichton still alive?"  
Jack looked her in the eyes, but Aeryn got the feeling that those weren't his real eyes.  
"He is alive." he answered. "Barely."  
"Where is he?" Aeryn asked.  
As she stepped forward, she hurt her leg as she tripped and almost fell.  
Crais grabbed her, before Aeryn reached the floor.  
After all those hours after her near-death-experience, she was still feeling weak.  
Her empty, hollow eyes revealed her true emotions and inner pain.  
Hearing about Crichton's survival made her eyes glow again.

"Where is he?" Aeryn asked him again.  
"That's what I'd like to find out." Jack answered, as he looked upon her with his frozen eyes.

"…bloody little slug…" Grunchlik muttered as he opened the door to the communicator.  
He intended on contacting Scorpius, telling him about the whereabouts of Moya's crew, and possibly Crichton.  
He didn't expect the Scarran who suddenly stood in front of him, slamming him against the walls and heating his brain.  
"Who are you?" Artokh asked the frightened Grunchlik, who lied begging on the floor in front of him.  
"My name is Grunchlik, sir." he said. "I am but a meaningless slug. My services are at your disposal."  
"How can you be of use to me? Tell me, or die!"  
Grunchlik tried desperate to think of how he can help the Scarran or be of assistance.  
"Tell me what you want and I'll give it to you! Please don't kill me!"  
At first Artokh wanted to kill this unholy, pathetic creature, but then decided otherwise.  
"Perhaps you may be of some use to me..."  
Artokh grabbed Grunchlik by his neck and dragged him away.  
The doors of ice closed as they left the chamber.

"State your designation." Scorpius said.  
"Aenos Farren. Peacekeeper Commando. Deadolian Company. Ishtar Regiment."  
Scorpius walked round him as the Sebacean stood at attention in the middle of the room.  
"He is the one who found Crichton." Bracca said. "Sir..."  
"How interesting..."Scorpius said amusing. "Such an act of bravery must be rewarded."  
Aenos was briefly tempted to look Scorpius straight in the eyes, but he didn't, because that would be inappropriate before a commanding officer.  
"Luitenant Bracca." Scorpius said. "Give this man twice the amount of money that he would normally receive. A man like you deserves such a reward."  
"But what about my team, sir?" Aenos asked. "How will they be rewarded?"  
"Your team will get a honourable funeral. Their names will be enlisted on the Wall of Fallen Heroes."  
"Thank you, sir." Aenos said. "I am sure that they would have been honoured to have see their names on the Wall."  
"Now, officer Farren." Scorpius said. "I want you to return to the Command Carrier. There you will resume your present post, until called for, do you understand?"  
"Yes, sir." Aenos said.  
"Good." Scorpius said. "You may leave."

Aenos did as Scorpius requested of him, and returned to the Command Carrier.  
He was accompanied in the Marauder by several soldiers , but he did not know any one of them.  
All new faces. Tired faces.  
He thought of his friends. His dead friends. His team.  
All their names will be engraved into the 'Wall of Fallen Heroes' on the Sebacean capital.  
But his will not be engraved, because he is not dead.  
Why?  
Because one Luxan decided otherwise. He spared his life.  
And in doing so, he condemned it.

"Give them everything they want." Artokh said.  
Grunchlik swallowed and nodded to the Scarran who was twice his own height.  
His rumbling voice echoed through his ears, and the Scarran's claws burned into Grunchlik's skin.  
"When they return to their Transport Pod, I will be awaiting them..."  
"Obviously." Grunchlik said. "A very cunning plan, If I might add."  
At first he only wanted to steal from Moya's crew, but now he had to sacrifice their lives in order to save his own.  
He knew he was a frelling coward, but he didn't want to die.  
But he knew that a Scarran's word could not be trusted.  
Nor anyone who threatened to kill him.  
He needed to be of some extra value to him. Show him that he doesn't need to kill him.  
That way he could live...  
"Perhaps I can make a suggestion..."  
Artokh growled, and Grunchlik smiled nervously as he got closer to the Scarran.  
"It might be easier with a little help..."  
"Help?" Artokh grumbled, reaching for his throat again with his burning claws.  
"From another Scarran I mean!" Grunchlik groaned.  
Artokh did not what he was talking about.  
And he did not have the time to listen.  
Who knows when that dreadful War Minister arrives?  
And when she does, she would expect some results.  
"There is... another Scarran... in this facility..." Grunchlik said clearly, whilst his neck was being burned and crunched at the same time.  
He nervously watched as Artokh let him go.  
Smoke came out of his mouth and nostrils.  
"I'll show you where he is..." Grunchlik said as he cleared his throat. "Follow me..."

As Grunchlik turned away from the room where D'Argo, Chiana and Rygel were seated, he was quickly followed by the Scarran, who followed the poor creature past many ice caverns and chambers, only to enter the largest room in the facility.  
It stretched out for miles.  
The chamber was clearly not carved out by humanoids, or any other creature that had carved the building above this chamber.  
The edges of the cavern were still visible in the walls, which were several metras high.  
But the walls of the cavern were not visible, as thousands of big, metal, cryo-pods stood beside them. And every one of those cryo-pods contained a living person.  
And every last one of them was as good as dead, as they were clinging onto life on a very little thread.  
They were organ-donors, frozen as they breathed their lasts breaths, so that the organs which they used to help their living, and paying , customers and patients, would be fresh still.  
In that way, their patients had more chance of survival.  
Everyone in that chamber was as good as dead.  
Except for óne.

Artokhs footprints were still smoking as he walked through this hollow chamber, following this creature, Grunchlik, to the place where he said the other Scarran resided.  
With every step, the ice melted away under his feet.

"Now," Grunchlik said as he approached one of the cryo-pods.  
"Here he is."  
Artokh could not see who was inside, because the window was clouded on the inside.  
Grunchlik typed in a few codes in the console of the container, to begin the unfreezing process.  
It finished quicker then he expected.  
Artokh stood silent as he watched the other Scarran step out of the cryo-pod.  
His body was wet by the melting ice around him.  
Smoke ascended from the cyo-pod.  
"Artokh" Grunchlik said. "Meet Gyrshna."

But Artokh recognised the Scarran, to Grunchlik's surprise.  
"Hello, brother." Artokh said.


	7. Gamble

The two suns brightened the grey mountains of Yo'brakh as they crawled over the horizon and reached the skies, and turned the mountains orange in the morning sky.  
But the pale light of the suns never did reach the dark gloomy cellar of the base which lied within those mountains, as Commander Moxan went on with the current activities of the day, ignoring Scorpius, the hybrid who was terrorising his base of command.  
He hoped that Scorpius would go away, quickly, and that he would take away his prisoner, John Crichton, with him.  
He hated them with an equal amount of hatred.  
Scorpius, for taking over his base.  
Crichton, for luring Scorpius here in the first place.  
As Moxan tortured his prisoners and experimented on new weaponry he finally was able to forget Scorpius.  
But not for long.

The lights flickered.  
His equipment began to fail, were they used to succeed.  
Moxan did not know what was going on.  
But he did know who was responsible.

"Scorpius!"  
Moxan yelled his name through the darkness of his base.  
As he approached the main hall of the facility, hís facility, he knew something was wrong.  
"Scorpius!" he yelled again in fury.  
"Commander Moxan." Scorpius said.  
As Scorpius worked on his new equipment, brought down from the Carrier, he did not bother turn round to look Moxan in the eye.  
"How good of you to join us." Scorpius added.  
"What the frell are you doing to my facility?" Moxan shouted.  
His voice was almost unheard through the noise of the many devices which were attached to the Aurora Chair.  
"I am borrowing some power to give my Aurora Chair all the energy it needs."  
"To do what?" Moxan asked frustrated.  
"To revive Crichton." Scorpius asked.

"When I tried to locate Crichton, I found only this..." Jack said.  
After he said it he pointed towards a holographic image that appeared behind them, which seemed to be generated by Talyn, but neither Talyn or Crais ordered the machine to be activated.  
The holographic image was as clear as glass. It was almost like they looked at it through a window.  
The image displayed a planet, surrounded by an asteroid-field, seen from the perspective of a wormhole.  
Crais and Aeryn could tell that, because of the image being round, and it's edges being bright blue.  
"That's Yo'brakh." Crais said as he recognised the planet were they were before.  
Only a couple of days ago.  
"Is Crichton there?" Aeryn asked Jack, but he did not answer.  
He just pointed at the image again, which seem to zoom in on the exact spot where Jack was pointing.  
In the shadow of the planet a large craft was visible.  
Aeryn and Crais recognised it immediately.  
"A Command Carrier." Aeryn said.  
"Scorpius's Command Carrier." Crais corrected her.  
"My Command Carrier." Crais said in his mind. "The Command Carrier Scorpius stole from me."  
"Who is this Scorpius?" Jack asked.  
"A Peacekeeper scientist of high rank." Aeryn said. "He has been hunting Crichton for the wormhole-knowledge he possesses."  
"You know of the wormhole-knowledge?" Jack asked.  
"Yes, we do." Aeryn said.  
She asked herself why she was telling him all this, as she did not know or trust Jack.  
But Jack seemed honest and powerful, and not a type to betray or kill them.  
He took the form of someone Crichton trusted and loved.  
Someone close to Crichton.  
Aeryn's Peacekeeper instinct told her that that position would be the perfect position to kill Crichton, but Aeryn's heart told her that this was not the case.  
Jack has chosen the form of John's father for another reason.  
Maybe he feels like he's responsible for him.   
Maybe he feels like his teacher. His mentor.  
Maybe he feels like John's father...  
"How do you know of the knowledge I hid inside John's mind?" Jack asked.  
"It was Scorpius who discovered it." Crais answered.  
Jack sighed.  
"Do you believe Scorpius has captured Crichton?" he asked.  
"Scorpius has tried everything to get his hands on Crichton..." Aeryn said. "To get his hands on the knowledge. He has hunted him down, he has tortured him, he has put a chip inside his brain..."  
Jack finally understood why Crichton's signal was so distorted.  
The chip in Crichton's mind was the cause.  
"Do you believe Scorpius has captured Crichton?" he asked again.  
"We believed Crichton to be dead, before you told us otherwise..." Crais answered.

The unconscious Crichton was transported again on a stretcher to the Aurora Chair.  
The doctors disapproved this second transportation from operating room to hallway, for it could damage their patient severely if something were to go wrong.  
Scorpius did not want that to happen, but he needed Crichton.  
Crichton was the key to the entire process.  
His knowledge had to be taken.  
His consciousness had to be restored.  
Only then would the knowledge Crichton possesses be safe.  
And can it be safely extracted.

They strapped Crichton for the second time in Scorpius's Chair.  
Luitenant Bracca almost felt sorry for the human.  
Scorpius would save Crichton, so that he could kill him.

Moxan would have stopped the process which would destroy his facility, but he did not.  
He was too afraid.

No other scientists touched the Aurora Chair but Scorpius.  
He was the expert. A brilliant scientist.  
He attached several devices and strings to Crichton's head, and the chip that resided inside it.  
Before he would activate the process, he had one more thing to do.  
The white marble that surrounded him in the hallway disappeared as his mind dwelled into Crichton's, as he made contact with the chip.  
Harvey awaited for him at the usual spot.

"You intend to awaken Crichton?" Harvey asked.  
"Yes."  
Scorpius explained the process to his mental counterpart in Crichton's mind, and he immediately knew what Scorpius intended to do.  
"It could work." Harvey said.  
"It will work." Scorpius corrected.  
Harvey nodded and obeyed his master.

The lights flickered again, before shining brighter then before.  
All the energy of the facility was re-routed towards the Aurora Chair. And to Crichton's mind.  
As Scorpius pulled some switches and pressed some knobs, slowly the effects of the Aurora Chair on Crichton's mind were visible, as the human's body began to shake and shiver.  
Scorpius stared at his prisoner as he finished the process.  
The last remaining power flowed towards Crichton, until the machinery stopped, and the lights of the facility came back to life.  
"Wake up, Crichton..." Scorpius mumbled to himself, so softly that no-one could hear it.  
He did not like this violent way to try and wake Crichton from his coma, but he did not know any other way.  
He would rather risk losing the wormhole-knowledge, then to always fear of losing it, and by doing so, never unlock it.  
If he would never try to unlock the wormhole-knowledge, out of fear of losing it, then Scorpius would accept his own defeat.  
He would rather want him to have tried and lost it, then to have it, but to be unable to use it.  
Scorpius knew that he was gambling with the fate of the universe...  
"Wake up, Crichton..." Scorpius mumbled again. "Wake up!"

One star-system away, two signals stopped being broadcasted:  
Artokh's device, which displayed Crichton's life-signs, suddenly stopped.  
Jack suddenly felt a jolt go through his mind.

The Ancient had monitored Crichton's signal for a long time now, hoping to find the human, but instead he found his companions.  
The signal came from a mental echo inside John Crichton's mind.  
The echo created a bond between Jack and John, so that if needed, Jack could find him again, but the echo has been distorted for some time. Jack does not know why.  
And now it had completely faded.  
The signal is gone.  
And there could be only one conclusion drawn from that.

"John Crichton is dead." Jack said suddenly, and he stared at the ground, hoping for a sign which would tell him that this news is false.  
"What?" Aeryn asked.  
"I am sorry." Jack said. "I cannot sense him anymore. Which can only mean, that Crichton is dead."  
"No!" Aeryn shouted. "How dare you say that!"  
In her eyes a fire burned. A hellish fire, burning for the love of Crichton.  
Burning for the fear of losing Crichton. Again.  
"Why...do you torture me like this..." Aeryn tried to say.  
She was shivering. Shaking.  
"Why do you give me hope, and then take it away again..."  
Hope.  
A word which Crichton brought to Moya.  
"I am sorry." Jack said again.  
For a brief moment, Crais thought he saw a hint of emotion in Jack's eyes...  
But before Crais wondered again about Jack's true intentions, Talyn told him something that could possibly be true...  
"If Crichton is dead," Crais said. "Then it is possible that Scorpius has extracted the chip from Crichton's mind, killing him in the process..."  
"You believe this Scorpius to have taken the wormhole-knowledge from Crichton?" Jack asked.  
"I believe Scorpius is capable of that." Crais answered.  
Jack's eyes glowed.  
"Then I have no other option." He said.  
Aeryn and Crais and Talyn did not understand what Jack was saying.  
"I must destroy the Command Carrier, and Scorpius along with it."


	8. Violent

Crais turned his back to the Ancient.  
"You can´t be serious." he said.  
The look in Jack´s eyes told them exactly the opposite.  
"We cannot take on a Command Carrier! This would be suicide!"  
"Then it is suicide." Jack calmly replied.  
"You are willing to die for this knowledge?" Crais asked.  
"It is my task to keep this knowledge out of the wrong hands. If I should have to sacrifice my own life to see my goal fulfilled, then so be it."  
"You are insane."  
"Another maniac in search of this wormhole-technology." he thought.  
"You did not listen to my words." Jack said.  
This was the second time Jack replied to something Crais was thinking.  
"Can he read minds?" Crais asked himself.  
"I already possess the knowledge to control the wormholes. The knowledge my father passed down upon me, the knowledge I passed down unto Crichton..."  
"You gave Crichton the knowledge?" Aeryn suddenly said.  
"Yes, I did." Jack replied calmly.  
"Then YOU are the reason why we were hunted for an entire year. That John was tortured, tormented and driven to the edge of insanity. Then YOU are the reason that John is dead!"  
Swiftly she grabbed her pulse pistol and pointed it at Jack's head.  
But the Ancient never moved. He never showed any sign of fear.  
"I should kill you..." Aeryn said.  
Crais stood beside her, hesitating whether he should or should not throw the gun out of her hands.  
"Maybe you should." Jack said. "Maybe you should avenge John's death...  
But before you do I want you to ask yourself this question:"  
Jack looked straight into her burning eyes.  
Her long black hair laid asleep on her shoulders.  
"Would John have wanted you to spill blood in his name?"  
Aeryn's hand began to shake.  
Slowly she put her pistol down.  
"No." she said. "He wouldn't have wanted that."  
Talyn whispered things in Crais´s ear.  
The adolescent Leviathan was smarter then he seemed, and was more observant then Crais.  
A quality he had inherited from his mother.  
"So you are some kind of Guardian?" Crais asked.  
"My primary task is to keep the wormhole-knowledge out of the hands of evil-doers. So in that perspective I am a Guardian."  
"The guardian of the wormhole-knowledge." Crais mockingly said.  
And now this "guardian" wanted them to help him kill Scorpius.  
To help him destroy a Command Carrier.

"No," Crais said.  
"Talyn and I will not help you destroy the Carrier, even if we could stand a chance against it´s massive weaponry. I refuse to force Talyn into using violence again."  
Blowing up the Shadow Depository was something neither Crais or Talyn was proud of.  
"I do not want to encourage Talyn´s aggressive nature even further."  
"You do not perceive the true intensity of the situation.."  
"No!" Crais said.  
Jack understood.  
He was a peaceful creature, and also did not like to resort to violent measures.  
But if he were to protect his species, to protect this galaxy, then he had no choice.  
He had to blow up the Carrier with wormhole-weaponry, to kill Scorpius.  
But without Talyn, he was powerless to do so.  
Persuasion was needed.

As Jack closed his eyes, both Aeryn and Crais could feel Talyn shake.  
As they turned and faced the window, they saw the wormhole increasing in size, swallowing the entire Leviathan, before disappearing into thin air.

John opened his eyes slowly. Gently.  
It almost felt like his eyes had been glued shut for a long time.  
He groaned as he got up.  
The bright sun shined in his face.  
Warm rays of light heated his body.  
Sand flew through his fingers.  
"I know this place..." John whispered.  
Sydney, Australia.  
Earth.  
Dozens of people gathered to the sea in search of a refreshing dive into the cold water.  
As he turned around he saw several hotels and apartments, looking out over the water.  
And he also saw something else.  
He smiled.  
She smiled back.  
Aeryn Sun lay on her back in the sand, smiling at her lover.  
John recognised the place from his time in Australia, and from a dream he had on Moya once.  
He dreamt of him and Aeryn, together, on the beach.  
John told her he loved her, Aeryn laughed at him.  
It was kind of an embarrassing dream.  
But as John looked at Aeryn, he knew this time would be different.  
This time something has changed.  
As he crawled towards her in the sand, she stretched out her hand.  
"Hello, John." the Aeryn inside John's head said.  
John grabbed her hand and touched it gently.  
"I love Earp." Aeryn said. "It's so peaceful here."  
"Yeah," John said. "I know exactly what you mean."  
Aeryn smiled.  
"You didn't correct me." she said.  
"What?"  
"You didn't correct me when I said 'Earp'."  
"So?" John said as he stroked the palm of her hand.  
"I know it's pronounced 'Earth'." Aeryn said, who was clearly enjoying the attention she got from John.  
"I don't care if you pronounce Earth ´Earp." John said. "You could call it 'Earl', and I wouldn't care less about it. The only thing that matters is that yóu are the one saying it.  
That those words come from your precious lips. Every word that you say is as valuable as gold to me...you know why? Because I love you..."  
The words seemed to come so easy this time.  
"I love you too, John Crichton." Aeryn said.  
But it wasn't her voice that Crichton heard.  
It was somebody else.  
A woman.

At precisely that moment three Peacekeeper Command Carriers appeared in the sky.  
Dozens of Marauders came swooping down.  
A hundred Peacekeepers stepped out, killing everyone in search for Crichton.  
Crichton turned around, but Aeryn had disappeared.  
She was dead.  
He remembered it now.  
The soldiers surrounded him, and came closer and closer as they drove Crichton to the sea.  
As he felt the cold waves of the ocean touch his feet, he knew that he had no way to run.  
He thought about his surrender, his resistance, his future and his past, but before he know it, it was all over.  
A hand suddenly touched him on the shoulder.  
John felt his hot breathe down in his neck.  
"Don't worry, Crichton." the man said. "They won't get to you..."  
Crichton knew it would be him.  
He knew it was Scorpius who stood behind him.  
Scorpius has frequently haunted his dreams, turning them into nightmares.  
He was the monster in his dreams.  
The demon in his quest...  
"They won't get to you, Crichton..." he said again.  
Crichton turned his head towards Scorpius...  
"...BECAUSE I WILL KILL YOU, BEFORE THEY EVER GET THE CHANCE TO DO SO!" Stark shouted, as he removed his mask and set Crichton's mind on fire.

John Crichton woke up with a blast.  
He woke up from a nightmare, only to step into another one.  
Scorpius stared into his sleepy eyes, scientists stood everywhere and Peacekeeper soldiers guarded every door.  
John immediately felt the cuffs around his arms and legs burning into his skin, and he also noticed the contraption in which he was sitting.  
The one thing on which all of his nightmares were based...  
The Aurora Chair.  
He wanted to scream his lungs out. He wanted to shout, cry, scream, beg, kill, hurt, die...  
But he couldn't, and wouldn't do that.  
Because...what's the point?

"Welcome back, Crichton." Scorpius said as he approached the weak human in the Aurora Chair.  
"We meet again." Crichton said.  
John's eyes were itching. He thought he was going crazy. He was seeing Scorpius twice!  
The first Scorpius looked him straight in the eye, but the second Scorpius stood in the background, almost unnoticeable.  
"And we will meet again." Scorpius said. "Take him back to his cell."  
The scientists and doctors did as he asked and brought John back to his cell, accompanied by several Peacekeeper soldiers.  
"Lieutenant Bracca." Scorpius said, and the lieutenant appeared.  
Scorpius had gambled and won, just like he predicted.  
Crichton has been revived, and now the wormhole-equations were almost within his grasp...  
"Inform the Command Carrier that we will return in approximately one hour." Scorpius said to Bracca.  
"Yes, sir." he answered.

Commander Moxan heard everything.  
He was pleased with Crichton's recovery.  
Perhaps Scorpius will leave now...  
And then Moxan wouldn't have to resort to violent measures to máke him go away...


	9. Dangerous

"Where the frell is that Greenstalk?" Chiana said. "He's been gone for arns!"  
"I still don't trust him." D'Argo said, but Rygel waved his paranoia away.  
"He wouldn't betray us." he said. "He's too much of a coward to betray us."  
"Typical for you to say." Chiana said.  
Rygel just smiled at the Nebari without replying.  
"I don´t like that Gronslik." Chiana said. "He smells."

"Well, that's all sorted out!"  
Grunchlik entered with a big smile on his face.  
Chiana noticed the sweat on his forehead, and his shaking hands as he handed Rygel the bill for the expenses.

"17.000." Grunchlik said. "Just like we agreed."  
Rygel smiled unhappy, but fair.  
Grunchlik made a nervous impression, and he acted strangely friendly.

D'Argo suddenly smelled something familiar.  
He sniffed around as he tried to find out where the smell was coming from, although he did not stand up from his seat.  
It turned out to come from Grunchlik.

"Sorry,..." Grunchlik said, knowing that the Luxan smelled the Scarran's smell all over him. "...I just farted."  
"You are one disgusting creature, you know that?" Rygel said.

"Glad to have done business with you." Grunchlik said smiling as he grabbed the wallet containing the 17.000 brandar tiles out of Rygel's hand and walked away.  
"You will find everything you need in you're Transport Pod. And you're ship is ready to go, but without fuel, as promised." Grunchlik added.   
"Goodbye."  
Grunchlik said 'goodbye' with the utmost sincerity.

"Something stinks about this deal." Chiana said as Grunchlik left the room.

But D'Argo smelled something different.  
He expected the smell to fade away after Grunschlik left, but it didn't.  
In fact, quite the opposite occurred. The smell became stronger.

"As long as the medical supplies we need are on the Transport Pod, and my ship is ready to be towed, then I don't care." Rygel said. "Now let's get going."

He tried to leave, but D'Argo stopped him as he grabbed the Dominar's robe.  
He sniffed loudly.

"What's the matter, D'Argo?" Chiana asked.  
As D'Argo felt the drops of sweat on his forehead, he quickly grabbed his Qualta Blade, and pointed it towards the empty room in front of him.  
But it wasn't empty.

"What the frell are you doing?" Rygel asked loudly.  
"Shut up, and get behind me!" D'Argo shouted at his shipmates.  
"There is a Scarran in this room...!"

John's memories slowly came back to him.  
They were playing in front of his eyes, like old home videos, as he was laid down on a bed in a dark, cold cell.

The doctors forced food down his throat, stuck needles in his arm and put so many pills in his mouth that John nearly choked on them.

As they left his cell, John could feel that whatever they had done to him, was beginning to work.

Slowly his strengths returned to him, while he stared at his surroundings, hoping that he was still sleeping.  
The pain in his mind convinced him otherwise.

"What was wrong with him?" he asked himself, as the pain continued to get worse.  
He blamed Harvey.  
"What reason was there to continue this torment?"

"You are wrong, Crichton." the dark voice in the back of his head said to him.  
Harvey appeared in front of him, like an illusion. A ghost. An apparition.  
A hallucination.  
"It is not YOUR pain that you are feeling..." Harvey said.  
"It is mine..."

Harvey stayed reluctantly cool under these circumstances.  
The energy Scorpius used to revive Crichton's brainwaves caused an overload in the chip's systems, causing Harvey much pain, and giving John a headache.  
But it also disrupted Jack and Artokh's signals, causing them to believe John was dead.

"You might call it justice." John said.  
It was Harvey who had caused Moya much pain by causing the ship's primary systems to overload, and now Harvey suffered the same kind of pain.  
"Perhaps there is a God." John sarcastically said.

"I can handle pain." Harvey said.

"Haven't lost your sense of humour, I hear." Harvey stated.  
But as Harvey searched deeper into John's state of mind, he realised that there was more going on.  
"You still have hope..." Harvey concluded.  
"Even as you sit in the lion's mouth, you still think you're shipmates on board Moya will rescue you. You still hope..."  
"I do not hope." John said. "I am beyond hope."  
The look in John's eyes was fascinating.

"You do not wish to escape?" Harvey asked surprised.

"If D'Argo or Zhaan or Chiana or anyone wanted to rescue me, they would've done it by now." John said.  
"No, they won't rescue me. They probably think I'm dead."  
John sighed.  
"And perhaps I'm better off that way..."

"But why then do you keep resisting?" Harvey asked.  
"Even when you were in that coma you still resisted me. If you want to die so eagerly, then I'll be happy to do it for you! But give Scorpius his wormhole-technology!"

John stared into his cold eyes.  
"You took away all my hopes..." he whispered.

John's eyes were red and tired. His hair was messed up, and he slowly grew a beard.  
People on Earth would say he looked like a bum.  
A tramp. A hobo.  
Some dirty looking guy in some dead-end street, scaring the crap out of everyone who walked past.  
But looks can be deceiving.

"You took away everything...and now I have nothing to lose..." John continued.

"A man with nothing to lose...is a dangerous man." Harvey thought.

"John..." Harvey tried to interrupt, but Crichton wouldn't let him.

"There is but ONE reason...one reason...why I'm not going to end it all. Blow it. Kiss the princess. Say goodbye. See you later, alligator...KILL MYSELF."

For a moment there was a silence between them.

"...one reason..." John repeated.

"VENGEANCE."


	10. Escape

D'Argo felt the room getting hotter.  
The ice in the room started to melt.

"You think it's the same Scarran?" Chiana asked D'Argo as she looked around the room.  
"You think he survived the explosion?"  
"I am sure of it." D'Argo answered.  
He fired a shot with his Qualta Blade, only to hit nothing.

For a while, nothing happened.  
Chiana and Rygel thought D'Argo was becoming paranoid.  
He shot at several things in the room, to no avail.  
"D'Argo?" Chiana said.  
D'Argo fired again.

He knew it was there.  
He could feel it in his blood.

"D'Argo, perhaps you ..."  
D'Argo fired again, but only this time he hit something.  
For a microt a great big blur stood in the centre of the chamber.  
A blur in the shape of a Scarran.  
It faded away instantly, but it convinced them of the Scarran's presence.

Chiana drew her gun as well.  
"I hate it when you're right." she said to D'Argo.  
She feared the worst, as she knew that neither of them stood a chance against the Scarran.

Rygel looked desperately for another way out, but there was only one, and the Scarran was blocking it.

The Scarran attacked, hitting Chiana with a full wave of heat, which emitted from his hand.  
The ice behind the Nebari melted away instantly.

"Chiana!"  
D'Argo fired dozens of shots at the Scarran, destroying his cloaking device on his belt, but it did not hurt him.

So instead, D'Argo tried hitting the Scarran with his blade, forcing the Scarran to release Chiana from the heat, and concentrating his attack on the Luxan.

Artokh growled as the Luxan smashed him onto the table.  
He did not expect him to resist so strongly.

They ran out of the room, running towards their Transport Pod.  
"Where's Rygel?" Chiana asked, as they ran through the long and cold corridors of the facility.  
"I don't know." D'Argo answered, with his Qualta Blade at the ready.  
"He probably ran away to the Transport Pod. Frelling coward."  
As he looked over his shoulder, they saw the Scarran following them.  
"This way." Chiana said, remembering the way to their Pod.  
They turned the corridor, and took the second hallway to their left.  
"Dead end." D'Argo said.

It turned out Chiana was wrong.

The Scarran was on his way.  
D'Argo quickly thought of a plan.  
"Stay here." he said to Chiana. "Hide."

"What?"

"I'll distract the Scarran, make him follow me, so that you can escape to the Transport Pod."

"D'Argo, I won't do it!" Chiana said.  
She would not abandon her friend.

"You must!" D'Argo said. "Moya needs help! If we don't give her what she needs, she'll die!"

Chiana understood.  
She had to take the supplies to Moya.

She hid behind a cryo-pod, waiting for D'Argo to distract the Scarran.  
She didn't know she was accidentally pushing a button on the cryo-pod, which executed a procedure to open it.

Artokh followed the Luxan and the Nebari.  
Crichton's friends.

As he turned the corridor, he faced the Luxan, who fired upon him again, and tried to fight him.

D'Argo tried to slash the Scarran with his Qualta Blade, but it's skin was too thick.  
The Scarran simply took the weapon and threw it on the floor.  
D'Argo shouted as he punched the Scarran in the guts, but it had no effect.

The Luxan ran.

D'Argo found several doors. One of them lead outdoors.  
"Freeze or fry." D'Argo asked himself, knowing that this door lead to the cold, freezing wastelands beyond this facility.  
"Freeze." he said to himself.  
He opened it and stepped through, hoping that Scarrans hated the cold more then he himself did.

"The patient is ready for transport, sir."  
"Good." Scorpius said.

Crichton's celldoors opened.  
Several doctors stepped in, followed by an equal amount of Peacekeeper soldiers.  
To escort him to his new prison.

"Bring him to the Marauder." Scorpius commanded.

The human was pushed ahead.  
Many guns were pointed at his head, and therefore John did everything they said.  
His arms were forced to the back of his head and tied together .  
Together this band of people looked like a silly parade, with Crichton as the main attraction.

Thunder roared through the mountains.  
It still hadn't stopped raining.  
Sometimes it rained for months at a time on Yo'brakh, and this day was not different then any other day in the rain season.  
The sunlight was blocked off by large, big clouds which swirled above their heads and covered the mountains with mists.

John looked up, knowing that Scorpius's Command Carrier lay beyond those clouds, awaiting his arrival.  
But John wasn't going to give himself up that easily.

He pushed over one of the Peacekeeper soldiers, grabbing the gun which he held in his hands.  
The Peacekeepers aimed their weapons at Crichton, but Scorpius stopped them.  
"Don't shoot him!" he shouted.

If they killed Crichton, all would've been in vain.

"You heard the man." Crichton said.  
He held a pulse-rifle in his shaking hands, which were still tied together with ropes.  
"Approach me, and bye bye wormholes..."

John played with the idea of killing himself, right there in front of Scorpius.  
Then Crichton would have the ultimate revenge, as Scorpius wouldn't have the wormhole-knowledge.  
The knowledge in his mind, the chip in his head, they would all die with him.

"Stop this insanity, John!" Harvey said to him.

John laughed.  
He laughed so hard.  
He hadn't laughed so hard in years.

"Do I see fear in your eyes, Scorpy?" he said.

The Peacekeepers tried to surround him, but Crichton backed away.

"Suicide is painless..." John sung softly.  
The look in his eyes was mental.   
Insane.

"A life for a life, Scorpy." John said.

Scorpius's eye twitched.

With a quick twist of his arm, John shot Scorpius, and ran to the Marauder.  
He closed the doors and waved off Harvey's threats as he shot the pilot and took control.

"Capture him!" Luitenant Bracca shouted. "Don't let him get away!"

But it was already to late, as the Marauder lifted off from the ground and Crichton disappeared into the night sky.

"Carrier, this is luitenant Bracca speaking. John Crichton has stolen the Marauder and escaped our custody. I order you to shoot him down, but do not kill him. Repeat: Shoot him down, but do NOT kill him!"

The Command Carrier dispatched twenty Prowlers to begin the pursuit of Crichton.

Chiana slowly began to walk through the corridor, leaving her hide-out.  
She had heard the fight between D'Argo and the Scarran, and realised that the plan was a success.

Chiana found D'Argo's Qualta Blade on the floor.  
She lifted it up and held it in her arms.

Suddenly a strange sound filled the room.  
As Chiana turned around, she saw smoke coming from one of the cryo-pods, and she heard someone coughing.  
A woman.

A figure walked out of the smoke, towards Chiana.  
Her hair was red, and she wore a strange leather outfit.  
Her eyes were small and yellow.

Chiana pointed the Qualta Blade at her, not knowing if this was a friend or a foe.

As the woman realised she was being targeted, she freaked out, and began screaming so hard and high that Chiana reached for her ears.

Chiana hit her across the head with the Qualta Blade, so that she would shut up.

The woman fell to the ground, covering her wounded face.

"Please don't kill me..." the woman cried. "...Please, please-I don't know where I am. I don't know what happened-please don't kill me!"


	11. Birds

"Happy birthday, Crichton." Aeryn said.

She was the first to congratulate him as he entered the common room.

Crichton was surprised to hear these words coming from her.  
He smiled as he gazed upon her beautiful eyes.  
"What's all this then?" he asked.

He looked around the common room, staring at the many strange decorations which were displayed and hung around the chamber.

"It´s a birthday party." Aeryn said.  
"A birthday party?" Crichton asked surprised.  
"That's what humans call it, don't they?"

Crichton smiled.  
"Yeah, they do."

He had almost forgotten that it was his birthday today.  
He wondered how they had found out about it.

"Happy birthday, Crichton." Zhaan said as she kissed his cheeks and helped him to his seat.

"Whose idea was this?" Crichton asked the Delvian beauty.  
"Mine." Zhaan said smiling. "I thought it would be a nice surprise."  
"It is." John said sincere.  
"I had some help of course." Zhaan went on.  
"Chiana helped. And D'Argo too."

"And I helped too." Stark said.

The Banik sat in the corner of the room, gazing at Crichton with a kind smile, which hoped for gratitude.

"Thank you." Crichton said. "I really appreciate what you've done for me."

"You should!" D'Argo said as he appeared behind Crichton and laid his hands upon his shoulders.  
"I've put a lot of effort into this."

On the table stood various dishes and foods, most of which Crichtons favourites.  
"And can I just say something else..." D'Argo continued.  
"I could well be the best cook in the universe!"  
The Luxan laughed loudly as he slapped Crichton's shoulders and face and sat down on the other side of the table, next to Chiana, who welcomed him lovingly into his arms.

"The food isn't that good." Rygel said.

They laughed.

"Well, at least it´s better then that Hynerian 'fellack' you made last time!" Chiana replied.

They laughed even louder.

"It's a Hynerian delicacy!" Rygel said.  
"You peasants don't have any sense of taste!"

As the others helped themselves to their foods and began eating, John couldn't help but smile as he watched his friends enjoy their meals.

"Enjoy yourselves guys." Aeryn suddenly said. "I'm going to Command."

"Hey!" Crichton said. "Don't go! Stay! Eat!"

"No, I already ate." Aeryn said.

"Come on." Crichton said as he grabbed her arm.

He couldn't help but notice how soft her skin felt.

"Do it for me." he said softly.

"Come on, Aeryn!" D'Argo said. "It's Crichton's birthday! You can't leave early!"

"Apparently I can't." she replied.

Aeryn seemed apparently unwilling to stay, however when she sat down, she moved her chair very close to Crichton.

John looked at all of his friends on Moya.  
He realised that it had been a long time since he had seen them all this happy.

"What's the matter, John?" Zhaan asked.

Her loving smile seemed to share her happiness with everyone who gazed upon it.  
John smiled back.  
"On Earth," he said. "it is a custom to sing to the one who's birthday it is.  
I would like you all to sing for me."

"No, no, no." Aeryn said. "I'm not going to sing."

"I'm definitely not going to sing." Rygel said. 

"Come on you guys!" Chiana said smiling. "This could be fun!"

It was hilarious.  
Crichton could still hear his friends sing in his ears.  
Probably one of the most happiest moments in his life.  
One of the most happiest memories.

Crichton didn't know why he was reminded of this moment, as he flew across the heavens of Yo'brakh in a stolen Marauder, fleeing from Peacekeeper captivity and running away from death.

Such a happy moment.  
So long ago.  
Before the Shadow Depository.  
Before the neural-chip.  
Before Aeryn's death.

That, once happy memory, now only made him sad.

Lightning pulled the human out of his dreams and memories and back to reality.

The phenomenon lit up the sky in front of Crichton, showing the mountains in front of him and ten Prowlers heading towards him to intercept him.  
They were flying in formation, and reminded Crichton of a flock of birds.

Crichton's Marauder had no weapons.  
Crichton had figured that out pretty soon.  
He was defenceless against attacks.  
The Prowlers could shoot him down in an instant.  
The only advantage Crichton had was that his Marauder could go much faster then the Prowlers that were pursuing him.

Crichton wanted to leave Yo'brakh. Enter outer space.  
He knew that the Prowlers couldn't outrun a Marauder. Especially in outer space.  
The only thing that stood in the way was a Peacekeeper Command Carrier, which would shoot him down or capture him before he could escape the planet's orbit.

So, either way, he was screwed.  
Outer space wasn't an option. Landing was definitely not an option.

There was no way out.  
The only thing he would be doing was postponing his funeral.

Crichton had no clue what to do next.

He wanted to go home.

Memories of Moya played in front of his eyes again.

Strange.  
A ship full of aliens has become so normal.  
It has become home, even.

He had some trouble deciphering the Sebecean symbols and controls, but due to his experience with flying Aeryn's Prowler, he knew how to work with them.  
Swiftly he pushed some symbols and opened a communications channel.

"Moya! Pilot! If you can hear me...this is John. I repeat, this is John Crichton. Can you hear me? Please respond!"


	12. Jool

"Stop crying, you stupid tralk!" Chiana said. "I'm not going to kill you!"

The smoke dissipated from the corridor, and the only thing which remained was that strange, red haired girl which lied on the floor.

"Shut up!"

Chiana looked around the corner, hoping that the girl's screaming wouldn't attract any attention from Scarrans or other enemies that might be after them.

"My face..." she cried. "You hit me in the face..."

"You wouldn't stop screaming!" Chiana replied.

"You pointed a gun at me!"

"I did not!"

"Yes you did!"

"I wasn't aiming at you on purpose, you stupid tralk!"

"Stop calling me a tralk!" the girl shouted.

"Fine." Chiana said.

Chiana left the corridor, clutching D'Argo's Qualta Blade in her hands and looking for the way which lead to her Transport Pod.

To her annoyance, the girl followed her.

"Where am I?" she demanded to know. "Tell me now!"

"If you keep on screaming, I won't tell you a goddamn thing!"

Chiana pushed her back into the corridor they just left.

"You...you came out of a cryo-pod. Okay?" Chiana tried to explain.

"A what?" the girl asked.

"A cryo-pod. A freezing chamber. One of those things."

Chiana pointed at the machine which stood against the wall.  
A person was visible standing inside the contraption, standing silently and frozen as the girl asked Chiana more questions.

Chiana knew about the cryo-pods, because Grunchlik had told them about it as he showed them around the facility.

But she thought that the donors stored inside the cryo-pods were as good as dead.  
But this one was alive.

"I am a donor?" the girl said as Chiana told her about the use of the cryo-pod.

She started crying again, as she fell to the ground.

"Hey!" Chiana said as she pulled her up.

"You're not a donor anymore, aren't you? You're free to go!"

"Perhaps my cousins are here as well..." the girl went on.

"Maybe they're not...maybe they're at home, waiting for you...yeah, that's right...they're waiting for you..."

"I don't have a home." the girl cried.

"Get a grip, girl!" Chiana said.

"I have a name!" the girl shouted. " Joolushko Tunai Fenta Hovalis."

Chiana was confused.

"What?"

"Joolushko Tunai Fenta Hovalis!" the girl repeated. "That is my name!"

"Good for you." Chiana said.

She tried to leave again, but the girl caught up with her again.

"How many cycles have I been frozen?" Joolushko asked her.

"How should I know?"

"I could have been frozen for thousands of cycles in that thing!"

"Who knows..." Chiana softly said as she looked around yet another corner.

"My parents are dead. My cousins are dead. My brother is dead. Everybody I know will be dead!"

"And so will you IF YOU DON'T SHUT UP!" Chiana shouted.

D'Argo ran as fast as he could.

Snow and ice filled his senses.

He tried to find another way inside the facility, but all the doors were locked on the inside.  
There was no way he could get back, and he couldn't reach the door which he used to get outside, because of the Scarran which pursued him into the freezing blizzard.

They could barely see each other because of the snowstorm, but D'Argo knew that, if the Scarran would came any closer, his death would be certain.

He had to keep moving.  
Or else the Scarran would fry his mind.  
Or the blizzard would freeze his body.

D'Argo swiftly climbed down a small cliff, which lead him to a meadow of frozen trees.

The sun burned into his eyes, and D'Argo felt his toes go numb.

"This was a really bad idea." he thought to himself, thinking about what he said to Chiana.

D'Argo saw the Scarran enter the meadow, and he tried to hide from the creature.

Artokh's eyes however, pierced right through the snow.  
His heat vision could see straight through the cold exterior and see the Luxan's warm heart pounding in his chest.

Joolushko gasped for air as she saw the creature that was walking down the corridor in front of him.  
Quickly Chiana put her hand against her mouth.  
She knew that her scream would definitely alert the Scarran to their presence.

"What was that?" Joolushko said as they walked back into the other corridor to avoid being seen or heard by the Scarran.  
"Was that the Scarran you were talking about?"

"No-no, different Scarran." Chiana said.

"There's more then one of them out there?" Joolushko said, fearing for her life.

"And you say there after yóu?"

"Yeah, kind of." Chiana said.

"But why?" she wondered. "Why did they still want to capture them?"

She figured Grunschlik betrayed them to the Scarrans.  
She knew from the beginning that he couldn't be trusted.

"Oh, what am I getting myself into..." Joolushko muttered.

Chiana still held D'Argo's Qualta Blade tightly in her arms.

"You don't have to you know..." Chiana said. "You can easily go back. You don't need to follow me. I don't need your help."

"But I do need your help!" Joolushko said.

"Well then shut up and keep close," Chiana said. "...because I'm going for the doors."

"What?" 

Before Joolushko could say anything else, Chiana stepped into the other corridor and headed for the doors which lead to her Transport Pod.

Joolushko followed the Nebari through the icy corridor, fearing for her life.

"Damn, it's locked." Chiana said as she tried to open the large metal doors.

"The Scarran is coming back!" Joolushko said as she noticed a large shadow in the corridor to their right, coming to their position.

Quickly Chiana and Joolushko returned to their original corridor.

Gyrshna sniffed and heaved his head into the air.

He smelled something.

"I have to get to my ship!" Chiana said. "But that frelling Scarran locked the doors!"

"That's easily fixed." Joolushko said. "With locks like those it isn't hard to crack the codes."

"Well, can you?" Chiana asked.

"I can." Joolushko answered. "And I will. But only if you will tell me something."

"Yeah..."

"Can you help me find my own species? Can you help me get home?"

"I can't help you without my ship!"

"Then let's go!" Joolushko said, noticing the Scarran was gone.

They walked carefully towards the large doors which lead to their escape for the second time.  
They looked around, hoping that the Scarran had left for good, or wasn't coming back any time soon.

"Wow...I mean...wow..." Joolushko muttered.

"What?" Chiana asked.

"This mechanism...this doorpad, it's magnificent! I've never seen such a modern device before!"

"This crappy thing?" Chiana said. "This could well be over 100 cycles old!"

Joolushko was shocked to hear that, but stopped herself from bursting out in tears.

"Then, how old am I?" she thought to herself.

Despite Jool's unfamiliarity with the console, she managed to open it very quickly.

"Happy?" she said as she turned towards Chiana.

But Chiana did not look upon her.

The large, metal doors opened revealing Gyrshna, who had been waiting for them on the other side.

As he stretched his arm to unleash his heat upon the duo, Joolushko screamed.

Her piercing scream made even the Scarran reach for his ears.

Chiana realised this was their chance to escape.  
She grabbed Joolushko's arm and pushed the Scarran out of their way.  
She told Joolushko to keep screaming, but she didn't hear her anyway.

As Chiana pulled the Interion inside the craft and closed the doors, Joolushko slowly calmed down.

Gyrshna pounded the doors of the Transport Pod, but to no avail.

The Pod flew away.

Chiana noticed that the supplies they needed stood in the Pod's cargo-hold.  
Suddenly she doubted Grunschlik's treason.

"Is this your ship?" Joolushko said.

"No. This is just a Transport Pod." Chiana said as she navigated her way across the sky.  
"That's my ship."

She pointed at the front viewscreen.  
As she did it, the blue sky faded away into the darkness of outer space, revealing a large Leviathan which orbited the planet Chiana and Jool were leaving.

Joolushko was speechless by it's beauty.

"Hello, Moya." Chiana whispered.

She contacted Pilot.  
He did not respond.  
As her eyes wandered towards the medical supplies which stood in their Pod, she began to hope they were not too late to save Moya.

The Scarran walked straight towards the D'Argo, who was hiding behind some frozen bushes, slamming away the frozen trees which stood in his way, as if they were made out of cardboard.  
The trees shattered into thousands of pieces of ice.

D'Argo almost died in his final attempt to escape Artokh's grasp, as he jumped away, rolling into tons of snow before tumbling down on solid rock, as he fell from another high cliff.  
But he was alive.

The Scarran watched him from above, looking for a way down, but he couldn't find any.

D'Argo ran in the opposite direction, away from the cliffs and towards a large stretch of land, which stretched out in front of him to the horizon.

D'Argo knew this was a stupid move, but he had no other choice, if he were to escape the Scarran.

Artokh stared at the Luxan as he ran away into the distance.  
"The Luxan has escaped." Artokh said over his comms.

"So has the Nebari." his brother Gyrshna answered.

Gyrshna stood in a secluded part of the facility.  
Grunschlik stood next to him, as his obedient slave.

"No matter," Gyrshna went on. "We still have óne prisoner."

Rygel gasped for air as Gyrshna approached him. His chains almost stopped his blood from flowing into his tiny hands.

"The Hynerian." Artokh said.


	13. Frell

Rygel hyperventilated.

Both Scarrans now stood in front of him.  
The heat their bodies produced was unbearable, and it got hotter as they approached him.

"I am Dominar Rygel the Sixtienth!" Rygel said to them.  
"Release me now, or my armies will avenge my death and crush you!"

"I doubt it, Dominar." Artokh said.

His rumbling voice ended Rygel's desperate attempt to scare the Scarrans, and his attempt to strengthen his position, so that they wouldn't kill him.

"You have no armies, and you have lost your throne many cycles ago. You are no threat to us."

"There is only one reason we kept you alive." Gyrshna continued.

"John Crichton." Artokh said. "Where is he?"

Rygel exploded in fury.

"That frelling human!" he shouted. "Even in death he haunts us still!"

Rygel's loud voice woke up a sleeping Grunschlik who had fallen asleep for a microt, with a half-eaten sandwich clutched in his hands.

"He and his blasted wormholes! Will he never leave us alone!"

"Shut up!" Gyrshna growled.

The Scarran aimed his hand at Rygel, threatening to emit a wave of intense heat into his face if he didn't shut up quickly.  
Which Rygel did.

"Brother..." Gyrshna said.

Neither of the brothers knew about the other brother's assignment.  
Artokh's task was to follow Crichton.  
Gyrshna's task was to follow Scorpius.  
Both assignments lead them to this icy planet, were they helped each other to achieve their goals.

Gyrshna was sent by the Scarran Emperor, just like his brother Artokh, but his mission was to search for Scorpius, and to find out more about his dealings in the Unchartered Territories, and most importantly, to find out why he was so obsessed with capturing Crichton.

Gyrshna headed to this icy planet, because he had found out that this was the place where Scorpius visited his Diagnosian.  
Knowing that he could never get close to a Peacekeeper Command Carrier, he decided to hide here, and wait for Scorpius.  
Gyrshna would then follow him, or capture him.  
Whatever the Emperor desired from him.

He hid inside one of the cryo-pods, by advice of the local manager Grunschlik, and waited for Scorpius to appear.

Grunschlik was supposed to unfreeze him when Scorpius arrived, but he didn't.  
He wasn't going to unfreeze him.  
Scorpius was a client of his, and he payed well.  
But Grunschlik decided to keep the Scarran, so that if Scorpius would betray him in any way, he could set the creature loose on him.

But everything changed with the arrival of the other Scarran, Gyrshna's brother Artokh.  
Grunschlik decided to unfreeze the Scarran as a sign of good faith.

As Artokh greeted his brother after he stepped out of the cryo-pod, he asked him to help him in his mission to capture Crichton.  
Gyrshna agreed.  
How could he say no to his own brother? His own blood?

Grunschlik's plan backfired.  
Now there were two Scarrans in his facility.

Rygel panicked at the sight of the Scarran's hand.

"We know John Crichton is alive." Artokh said to the frightened Hynerian.  
"No more lies."

Artokh hissed.

"Now," he said, as he set Rygel's mind on fire with his fingertips, "Where is he?"

"Moya, can you hear me?"

Crichton's transmission was cut off as the Prowlers attacked.  
Bolts of light were fired upon Crichton's Marauder as it dove into the clouds.

"John Crichton." The Prowler pilots transmitted to him.  
"Surrender now and land your ship, or we will be forced to shoot you down."

Harvey terminated the transmission.

"This is futile, Crichton." he said.

"Do as they say and end this trip!"

"End it, Harv?" John said. "Already?"

His eyes shined a crazy light, which glowed in the moonlight.

"But I was just having so much fun!"

He dove to the ground.  
The Prowlers followed in his wake, circling him as hyperactive vultures.  
As Crichton made a loop over the mountainside he managed to shake some of his pursuers off, as they almost crashed into the cliffs.

"This is insane, Crichton!" Harvey said as he grabbed for something to hold on to.

"How many innocent lives must die before you give yourself up?"

"How many lives is Scorpius willing to sacrifice in order to get what he wants!" Crichton shouted back at the neural-clone.

John looked him straight in the eyes.

For a moment, he forgot he was flying a Marauder in a desperate and mad attempt to escape Peacekeeper captivity.  
He almost crashed if he hadn't grabbed the controls in time.

Dark clouds were pierced as Crichton flew through the dark sky.

He had only a second to gaze upon the beautiful starlight, as another wave of Prowlers attacked him once more.

"If you want to wreak your revenge onto Scorpius, why not just fly into one of the mountains and end it!" Harvey shouted.  
"What's to stop you from ending his wormhole-research. Huh?"

"You think I won't do it?" Crichton said, as he dodged another wave of pulse-fire.

"You think I fear death? I don't!"

Crichton dove towards the ground.  
The rocky cliffs came closer and closer.  
Death would be imminent if Crichton wouldn't intervene.  
If Harvey wouldn't intervene.

Exactly when Harvey wanted to stop Crichton, Crichton himself pulled his craft up and avoided the many huge rocks and cliffs like a pro.

"But I have faced death before." Crichton went on. "So many times. Too many times.  
But all the times I faced death, I did not fear it."

Harvey gazed upon the human's dreaming eyes.

"I did not fear it, because I knew it could not kill me. Because I knew how my death would be like.  
I would die in the hands of my love. My only love.  
Aeryn Sun.  
But now she's dead. And I have no-one left to die for."

For a moment, everything was silent.

"And now I fear every death, knowing that I'll die them without her."

"Alone." Crichton added in his mind, but Harvey heard it.

Suddenly, a Prowler swooped down from above Crichton's Marauder in another attempt to cripple the ship.

He failed, and John smashed into the Prowler, killing the pilot in the process.

Crichton grew silent after this sudden emotional outburst towards Harvey.  
He was slightly embarrassed, and used the Prowler's crash into John's Marauder as an opportunity to check upon the damage, and to get his mind to focus on something else.

He did not see Harvey behind him staring in awe at the human.  
Crichton's words seemed to have touched him, but it wasn't just that.

Crichton had crashed into another ship. He killed it's pilot.  
A Peacekeeper pilot, who was just doing his job.

Harvey did not blame Crichton for killing the pilot, because even he did not see him coming from that angle. It was a freak accident, as you might say.  
But the thing which scared him the most, was that Crichton did not feel remorse.  
Something Harvey hadn't noticed before.

Crichton has become cold. Death has just become another chapter in his life.

Murdering someone to save his own life has become something so normal the past two years of his life here in the Unchartered Territories.

Suddenly Harvey felt a strange emotion creeping up inside his chest.  
He didn't recognise it.  
It felt so strange...

"I'm sorry, Crichton." Harvey said. "Yet again."

"I bet you are..." Crichton replied.

He knew exactly what Harvey was going to do.

"I can't let the wormhole-knowledge you possess escape Scorpius's grasp yet again. I must bring it back to him. That is one of my functions..."

"No, no, no –I won't...LET...YOU!"

Before Crichton could finish his sentence, Harvey closed his eyes, and attacked Crichton's mind, attempting to take over John's body and mind again.

"HAR-VEY! YOU SUNNAVABITCH!"

Crichton felt like someone was caving into the side of his head.

He felt like he was pushed into a vast, dark lake, and that he couldn't swim to the surface.

He felt like he was drowning.

Everything turned black, and then Harvey took over.

As Harvey felt Crichton's blood flowing through Crichton's veins, he suddenly recognised the emotion he felt before.

It was guilt.

But then something else happened.


	14. Confrontations

"What the frell is going on?" Moxan yelled as he approached lieutenant Bracca who stood silently in the control centre of Moxan's base, gazing outside through the window.

Or so it seemed.  
In fact, he was gazing at his own reflection, and then at the reflection of Commander Moxan as he walked towards him.

Moxan had always looked intimidating, because of the huge scar which covered the left side of his face, and the eyepatch which covered the hole that remained after his wounded eye had been removed.  
Although his appearance frightened most of his own men, it did not impress Bracca.

"Why haven't you left this planet yet, like you said you would?" Moxan shouted.

"We would gladly leave." Bracca replied, without turning around to face him. "However, there is a problem."

"What problem?" Moxan asked aggressively.

He walked up towards Bracca's side.  
He refused to talk to Bracca's back any longer.

Moxan was almost twice Bracca's size, but that didn't scare the lieutenant.

"John Crichton has escaped our custody." Bracca said, with a hint of embarrassment.

Moxan's eye twitched.

"And what does that have anything to do with me?" he said loudly in Bracca's ears.

Some technicians looked at their commander with fright.

"Crichton..." Bracca tried to say, but his sentence was cut short by Moxan, whose voice grew louder and louder.  
"Crichton is none of my concern! But my facility is! I refuse to stand by any longer, and watch you take over my base, and run it as your own! Go back to your louzy Carrier, and get out of my sight!"

"On the contrary, my dear Commander Moxan..." a chilling voice suddenly spoke.  
"...we will stay."

Scorpius's reflection appeared in the window and as Moxan turned his gaze in the opposite direction, he saw the real Scarran hybrid walking towards him.

"We shall have to rely on your gracious hospitality for a little while longer." Scorpius said, almost amused by the look on Moxan's face.  
"...because we won't leave, until Crichton is on our custody once more."

"And the wormhole-knowledge in my possession again." he added calmly in his mind.

Scorpius tried to shake Moxan's hand, but the Sebacean angrily pulled his hand away.

"I don't care about Crichton!" Moxan said.

"But your superiors do!" Scorpius replied violent.  
"And if I tell them that yóu are the reason we couldn't recapture Crichton, then this base will probably shut down. No, I will personally make sure that this base will shut down, and that your career will be ruined."

"But what if I tell them that yóu are the reason I can't deliver them my weapons, and couldn't reach the deadline, huh?"

"You underestimate Crichton's value." Scorpius said. "The knowledge he possesses will mean an end to all warfare, and will give us a huge advantage over the Scarrans..."

"Wormholes! Ha!" Moxan shouted, as he looked Scorpius straight in the eyes.

Scorpius was surprised.  
He did not expect him to know about it.

"Wormhole-technology is a myth!" Moxan said.

Bracca stood silently with his back towards the window, staring at their heated discussion.  
He was curious to know how Scorpius would react to such a claim, knowing that Scorpius has searched and studied wormhole-technology and it's potential for at least a decade.

"You are a fool to believe such claims." Scorpius spoke calmly.  
"You have no idea what wormholes can do. When you have the power to control the wormholes, you have the power to control the universe!"

"Wormholes is nothing more then a myth! A tale of drunken men and dead leaders!  
Luxan weaponry is the future! With it, we can even take on the Scarrans!"

"Luxan weaponry?" Scorpius asked outrageous.

"Yes." Moxan said. "Archeological scientists in the Luxan Territories have discovered ancient craft and weaponry with amazing technologies! I have dedicated myself and my base to uncovering the secrets of this technology, and a month ago, our efforts have finally paid off!"

In Moxan's right eye, a fire burned.

"An enormous breakthrough in the studies of the Luxan craft! We managed to open their ship and crack the codes to control it. But all our hopes were taken from us, when the Luxan ship was stolen! Our prototype stolen by Scarrans! We have no evidence that it was indeed Scarrans, but we know it was them. They have been spying on our developments since the moment the craft and it's technology set foot on our base.  
For a month now, we've been desperately trying to rebuild the prototype with materials of our own. We were very close to another breakthrough, but then Crichton flies into our sector.  
YOU take over my base, and disturb my work!"

Moxan's face seemed to turn red.

"How fascinating..." Scorpius said.

Moxan almost attacked Scorpius, if Bracca hadn't stepped in.

"I have enough of you! No more being polite! This is your final warning! Go back to your frelling Command Carrier!"

Bracca was almost pushed aside as he tried to protect Scorpius from harm.  
But then Scorpius attacked.

His Scarran growl made all the Peacekeeper technicians turn around in fright.

Moxan did not know what hit him.

"I have enough of you, Commander Moxan!" Scorpius roared as he grabbed Moxan's neck and hurled him against the wall.

Scorpius's sharp teeth shined in the bright light of the Control Centre.

"You underestimate me, and my tenacity! I will not leave, before Crichton is in my custody! Do not think I will not kill you if you stand in my way again!"

Scorpius hurled the Sebacean over the floor.

Moxan crawled up to his feet as he reached for his sore neck.

"If I were you, I would leave, Commander Moxan."

Moxan groaned as he looked at Scorpius one last time before leaving the Control Centre.

He was publicly humiliated.  
And in front of his own men, as well.

"Scorpius would pay for what he has done." Moxan said. "He will pay."

Scorpius turned to his lieutenant, clutching the arm with which he had attacked Moxan.

"This is getting out of hand." Bracca said.

"Indeed." Scorpius said.

His voice was normal again.

"Sir, if I may say so, why can we not return to the Carrier and let Moxan be?" Bracca said.

"The Carrier cannot sense beyond those mountains." Scorpius explained.  
"And Marauders cannot land anywhere in the vicinity of the mountains but here on this base.  
This base is essential to our plans. Without it, we cannot capture Crichton."

"Crichton has crash-landed somewhere within the valley." Bracca said to Scorpius.  
"He will be easily found. And if he tries to leave the planet, the Carrier will outrun him and overtake him."

Scorpius wondered why the neural-clone in Crichton's mind had not brought him back, like he was supposed to do.  
But Scorpius did not say this out loud.

"Do not think to little of Crichton." Scorpius said.  
"He is smarter then he seems, and very resourceful.  
I have already underestimated him too many times, but I assure you, this time, we will not."

Bracca nodded.  
Scorpius was a wise man.  
But that wasn't the only thing which convinced him of the sincerity of those words.

Bracca remembered his confrontation with Crichton in the shuttle at the Royal Planet, and their second encounter in the Shadow Depository.  
The human had escaped capture on both those occasions, and Bracca wasn't going to let him escape this time.


	15. Damage

Crichton opened his eyes.

John found himself lying on the floor of the Marauder he stole from the Peacekeepers.

His head felt like an atomic bomb, which could go off at any second.

Pain numbed his senses as he got off of the floor.

Crichton's tired eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness inside the Marauder.

When Crichton's eyes could finally see through the darkness, he saw the magnitude of the damage that the craft had to endure.

Consoles were ripped apart and the window was shattered. Green branches and leaves stuck through the glass, as if they were desperately trying to get in the ship.

Bright sunlight entered the dark interior of the Marauder through a small hole in the shattered window.

As Crichton carefully approached the front of the ship, he suddenly felt a shock going through the craft.

The balance had been disrupted. Weight has been altered.  
The craft heaved and shook, and Crichton had to hold on to the seats to keep him standing up.

Crichton felt that this wasn't a good thing. He headed swiftly towards the Marauder's doors, which lead to the outside world, he hoped.

As he pushed open the doors and looked around, John found himself stuck in a tree.  
Not John himself, but the Marauder.  
It was caught in the huge branches of the enormous trees, hanging some 10 metras above the ground.

With every step he took, he could feel the Marauder shake: the sudden shift of weight seemed too much for the trees to handle.

As the Marauder began to break loose from it's wooden chains, John jumped into the trees, which seemed the smartest thing for him to do.  
He held on tightly to the enormous, green branches.

The branches broke.  
The trees shook wildly as the Marauder fell down onto the ground with a large bang.

John climbed down, still recovering from the pain, the shock and the surprise.  
As he touched the ground, he really felt happy to feel solid ground again.  
He was glad to be free again.

"You call this freedom?"

A sudden burst of pain in his head reminded Crichton of the person he didn't want to remember.

Harvey.

The imaginary Scorpy-clone sat comfortably on a large branch of the tree in front of Crichton, looking down on the human with a painful gaze.

John didn't answer his question.

"What did you do to me?" John shouted to him.

The pain spread all over his body again.

"What did you do to my body? To the Marauder!"

"Pilot!"  
Chiana commed him time after time, but every time Chiana tried it she got no response.

Joolushko was wondering who that Pilot she was trying to contact was.

Chiana landed the Pod nice and easily in Moya's docking-bay.

As she stepped out of the Transport Pod, carrying one of the boxes with supplies on board, she noticed something was wrong.

It was too quiet.

She loaded the supplies into Moya's Cargo Hold, followed by an amazed Joolushko.  
As Chiana loaded the box onto the floor, she froze up.  
She heard something.

"What?" Joolushko said.

"Shut up." Chiana said.

"What!"

"Shut up and get the other boxes!" Chiana said.

She left the Cargo Hold.

"You can't just..." Joolushko tried to say.

"You want my help?" Chiana said.

"Well, yeah..."

"Then do as I say!"

She left Joolushko standing shocked in the middle of this unknown room, in the middle of this unknown ship, in the middle of this unknown part of the universe.

"I'll get through this..." Joolushko said to herself.

She walked back to the Transport Pod.

"I'll get through this..."

Her blue eyes reflected fear, but also a bit of confidence.

"My parents said I could do anything I set my mind to. I've never doubted them before."

As she walked through another passageway and found herself walking towards a room she had never seen before, she began to hyperventilate.

"Maybe once or twice."

She was lost.

Perhaps Jool didn't hear anything, but Chiana did.  
Nebari always had better hearing then any other species.

The strange noise had faded away, until it was gone, but Chiana knew where it came from.

She headed towards Pilot's Den.

"Pilot!" she shouted over the comms, hoping that this time she would get an answer.

"Aeryn? Jothee? Why won't you answer me?"

There was something wrong.

Moya felt differently. Weaker.  
Angrier.

"Moya? What's going on?"

Chiana walked into Pilot's Den, where she found an unconscious Jothee, and an unconscious Pilot.

Pilot didn't wake up, even when Chiana tried shaking his head.  
Jothee woke up much quicker.

"Chiana?" he asked, seeing her face as he opened his eyes.

"What happened?" Chiana asked. "Where's Aeryn?"

"Aeryn's gone." Jothee said. "They're all gone."

"What the frell are you talking about?" Chiana asked as Jothee crawled onto his feet.

"Aeryn went over to Talyn." Jothee explained as he pressed his wounded forehead with his sore arms.

"Where's Talyn? I didn't see him in orbit." Chiana said.

"Talyn got...swallowed...by a..."

"WORMHOLE!" Pilot suddenly shouted.

"You are unharmed." Harvey said. "And you should consider yourself lucky."

The neural-clone jumped down from the tree and walked towards John.

John's headache returned.

Both Crichton and Harvey felt it, but only Harvey did not show his pain.  
Crichton reached for his head.

The pain felt like a wave, which rushed through his mind.  
An echo, which bounced against his skull.

An echo of a pain he had felt somewhere before.

The Aurora Chair.

The machine which had scarred his soul, still haunts his mind and memories.

But his second experience with Scorpius's Chair, here on Yo'brakh, did more damage then either Crichton or Harvey expected.

"It hurts, doesn't it Crichton?" Harvey said. "I know it hurts, because I feel it also.  
The pain which roams through your subconscious, and through my neural-chip."

"Your neural-chip?" Crichton said. "The neural chip...feels the pain...the neural-chip...IS the pain!"

Crichton suddenly realised what was going on.  
Why Harvey crashed the Marauder.  
Why Harvey couldn't take him back to Scorpius.  
Why the pain has grown worse.

As Scorpius reanimated Crichton with the use of his Aurora Chair, the energy which flowed through Crichton's mind short-circuited the neural-chip, and it's connections to Crichton's mind.  
The neural-chip still stored the wormhole-technology which Harvey had extracted from Crichton's mind.

"You know it, don't you?" Harvey said to Crichton.

"My neural-chip is damaged. It's connections now burn into your brain. Into your mind.  
The longer it stays, the more damage it will do. Until eventually...  
You will die."

"Well, that's just great, isn't it?" John shouted. "That's just 'yeeha' fuckin' great, no?  
Fucking fantastic! Make's you leap into the air out of joy! I've got a tumor in my brain.  
And it has a name. I call it Harvey."

The look in Crichton's eyes could've murdered a man by just looking at him.

Harvey returned Crichton's gaze, but said nothing.  
The days when Harvey was in control of his own future, and objectives, were over.  
His fate, and the fate of the universe, lay in Crichton's hands.

Harvey wasn't a threat to John anymore, as he could not take over Crichton's body anymore, or affect it in any way, but by talking to Crichton in his daydreams.  
If he would try to intervene in Crichton's actions, it would only speed up the process of Crichton's death.  
And Crichton's death would mean the loss of the wormhole-technology.  
And Harvey wasn't going to let that happen.

Pilot freaked out.  
Moya freaked out.

"Pilot!" Chiana shouted at the blue navigator of Moya.  
"Pilot!"

Pilot went totally berserk.  
Adrenaline pumped through his veins. Moya's adrenaline.

"Pilot!"

"Moya's gone crazy!" Jothee said. "When Pilot went nuts the first time, I tried to help him, but he knocked me away! I almost fell down!"

"Of course Moya's gone crazy!" Chiana said as she looked up.

"Her son's missing! How would you react if your son got swallowed by a wormhole!"

She climbed over Pilot's consoles to help him. She almost got knocked off, just like Jothee was, but she managed to grab his arms and get close to Pilot.

"Pilot!" she said. "It's me! I'm back!"

She put her arms around his head.

"It's Chiana!" she said. "I've brought the medical supplies for Moya, and for you. I'm here to help!"

Chiana could feel Pilot's heart pounding in the middle of his huge blue chest.

"Chiana..." Pilot suddenly whispered to her.

"Calm down, Pilot. Relax. It's me."

"Moya... " Pilot whispered. "...she's terrified..."

"I know, Pilot." Chiana said. "I know."


	16. Vertigo

Commander Jozo Moxan walked into the officer's lounge.

The once comfortable and relaxed lounge was now silent and dark.

The lights were dimmed.  
Moxan could see his sub-officers sitting in the dark corner, awaiting his arrival.

They waited for him, just like Moxan asked them to do.

Their faces looked grim.

"Gentlemen." Moxan he said to them as he approached their table.  
"Thank you for waiting for me."

As Moxan grabbed another chair and joined them at the red table, one of the sub-officers raised the lights over the table just a little bit higher.

"We have a problem." Moxan said.

"Scorpius." one of the officers replied.

"Indeed." Moxan said.

His neck still coloured red from his violent encounter with Scorpius.

"Our operation is put at risk.  
All because of the actions of this man.  
This freak..."

Some of the officers nodded, others began cursing the damned Scarran hybrid, but Moxan begged for silence.

"Gentlemen. Please...I know how you feel." Moxan said.

"We will sit by no longer. The time of action has come. I have find a way to rid our base of this...pest."

"We cannot resort to violence!" one of the younger officers said.  
"If we would, it would be the same as declaring war against a fellow Peacekeeper!"

"Scorpius is only half Peacekeeper!" another interrupted.

"But a Peacekeeper nonetheless!" the other replied.

"Gentlemen!" Moxan shouted.

Moxan was forced to end their discussion for the second time.

"I have already found an answer to our problem..." he said.

"What do you mean?"

"I have contacted someone who has high connections in Peacekeeper High Command."

Moxan spoke loudly and calm.  
He seemed to be calm and apparently honest, however a transparent red glow of aggression in his eyes, which was unseen in the darkness of the lounge, was proof that he wasn't.

He longed for Scorpius's death.

"She is a woman with high authority and she has much influence in politics." Moxan resumed.  
"She knows much about Scorpius's dealings in the Unchartered Territories."

"Who is this woman?" they asked.

Moxan smiled.

"I'll introduce you to her." Moxan said.

Moxan pressed some buttons on the console attached to their table and a large viewscreen appeared on the wall of the lounge.  
He brightened the lights and hailed his contact.

A woman appeared on screen, lying comfortably on a large black couch.

Her skin was pale. Her hair short, and as black as outer space.  
Her eyes were huge and bright, and blue.

"Commander Moxan." the woman said.

"Commandant Grayza." Moxan replied. "Thank you for responding."

"I'm happy to oblige." Mele-on Grayza said. "Scorpius is a menace. Almost as renegade as Captain Crais. The only difference between them is that Scorpius has higher connections as Crais, and has befriended many people of high rank.  
He uses his hunt for the outlaw Crichton as an excuse to terrorise the Unchartered Territories, and now your base."

"He has gone too far in his obsession for this John Crichton!" Moxan said.  
"He must be stopped."

"And he will be stopped, Commander." Grayza said. "But not yet. There is much to be done, before we can act. Generals must be bribed, the High Council must be convinced. When I'm done, every Peacekeeper in the universe will see Scorpius as much as an outlaw as the human he desperately pursues."

"And then we can kill Scorpius?" Moxan asked.

The officers behind him eagerly awaited her answer.

"Then he can be killed." Grayza answered.

"Talyn...stopped talking to his mother," Pilot spoke. "-when...when the wormhole appeared.  
We tried...we tried to contact Crais, but he didn't reply."

Chiana lovingly grabbed one of Pilot's arms and held it tightly against her chest.

"We tried to contact you on the planet, but you didn't respond either..."

Pilot slowly gasped for air, trying to control his fears as they crept up again.

"Moya was afraid." Pilot slowly said. "...afraid she would die alone..."

Jothee wanted to say something, but he didn't.  
He wanted to say that Moya wasn't alone.  
That he was there to help her.

But he didn't.  
Because he thought to himself:  
"I'm not an actual member of this crew, am I? I'm leaving soon, aren't I?"

There was only one reason why Jothee stayed on board Moya.  
He wanted his father's forgiveness.

"You're not going to die alone..." Chiana said to Pilot. "You're not going to die at all!"

"Where's D'Argo and Rygel?" Pilot asked weakly. "I do not sense them aboard..."

"Is my father not on board?" Jothee asked. "Where is he?"

"D'Argo..." Chiana tried to say, as she remembered him stepping outside of the icy facility, running away in a desperate attempt to distract the Scarran, so that Chiana could escape.

"There were Scarrans." Chiana said.

"Scarrans!" Jothee asked surprised and fearing for his life.

He remembered that their last encounter with a Scarran didn't end well.

"Were they captured?" he asked.

"I couldn't...I couldn't..."

"Pilot, can you scan for their comm-signals?" Jothee asked.

Amazingly enough, Pilot responded quite fast.

A hologram appeared, where an animated map of the planet's surface was displayed.

In the centre stood the Diagnosian's facility.  
A giant dot glowed in it's centre.  
It was Rygel's signature.

"Rygel's been captured." Chiana said.

Chiana remembered Rygel's sudden disappearance.  
D'Argo thought he'd already gone to the Pod, but he was wrong.  
He was captured.  
Chiana knew for sure he was.  
The little slug now was a Scarran prisoner.

Another shining dot was visible on the outskirts of the map.

"It's D'Argo." Chiana said. "He escaped."

"But how did he get all the way down there?" Jothee said. "That's the icy plains!"

"He's going to freeze to death!" Chiana said.

"Not if I can help it." Jothee said.

Jothee walked away.

"Where are you going?" Chiana said.

"I'm going to save my father." Jothee said heroic.

The suns of Yo'brakh rose higher and higher across the skies.

"We have located Crichton's Marauder."

Peacekeeper soldiers scattered throughout the area Crichton's Marauder fell from the skies.

"Find Crichton." Scorpius said to them through their comms-devices.  
"He cannot have gone far."

"Understood, sir."

The visors of the soldiers' helmets glowed in the sunlight.

They couldn't find the human.  
Not inside the Marauder, nor anywhere near it, and all tracks were carefully wiped away.

"There's no sign of Crichton here." one of the Peacekeeper soldiers reported to his commanding officer.  
"He must be long gone by now."

They were unaware that the human was sitting on top of them the entire time.

Crichton sat silently on the upper branches of the large tree beside the Marauder, more then 10 metras above the soldiers who were searching for them.

As John heard them saying that they couldn't find him, and that they starting thinking about leaving the area, John slowly began breathing again.

The heavy sunlight which burned upon his skull made his headache more painful then ever.

Drops of sweat flowed onto his forehead.

"So the chip has to come out." Crichton whispered.

"Not if you're feeling suicidal." Harvey replied.

"I'm not suicidal." Crichton said.

He tightly held onto the branch he sat on, so that he wouldn't fall.

"Still afraid of heights, John?" Harvey said.

"Always have been." John said.

The Peacekeeper soldiers seemed to swarm beneath Crichton, like little ants, in search for him.

"I bet there's only one man who can get the chip out." Crichton said to Harvey.

He already expected what Harvey would say.

"Scorpius." Harvey replied, knowing that Crichton expected him to say this.

"Murphy's Law." Crichton said.

"You think Scorpius is alive?" Harvey asked. "Even after you shot him in the face?"

"Of course Scorpius is still alive." Crichton said. "Haven't you been listening to what I was saying? Murphy's Law! Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong! It's the way the galaxy works!"

Harvey smiled.

"Then you are smarter then you look." he said.

"That would be easy." Crichton replied.

Shots were fired.

Crichton was discovered!

Swiftly he jumped from the branch, clinging onto the tree and jumping from branch to branch.  
Crichton ignored his sudden tendency to scream like Tarzan, and ran for his life.  
He jumped and climbed until he fell to the ground, with a painful back.

Outnumbered and outgunned (Crichton was unarmed), Crichton ran through the woods.  
The Peacekeepers followed with their guns drawn.

As Crichton avoided another wave of shots that were fired upon him, he noticed a gap in the woods: a small field where there grew no trees.  
Crichton ran towards it: he had a plan.

The two suns burned into his eyes as he stopped running and waited for the soldiers in the middle of the field.

"I give up!" Crichton shouted. "You can have me! Take me back to Scorpius!"

The Peacekeeper soldiers appeared from the shadows of the woods.

"Hold your fire." the commanding officer said. "He surrenders."

Crichton's plan was easy and simple.

Lure them into the sunlight, and hope they drop dead.  
Or at least let the sunlight weaken them so that they cannot pursue him anymore.

Peacekeepers, or Sebaceans were cold-blooded species.  
Their bodies cannot cool itself off, and therefore they cannot stand the heat.

They have all been trained to fight in hot atmospheres, but Crichton hoped two suns would be enough to weaken them.

For a moment he was worried the rain which poured from the skies last night would have cooled the planet down, but that turned out to be nothing to worry about, as the world heated up in the afternoon and Crichton hoped his plan would work.

Crichton felt the heat affecting his mind.  
It was damn hot.  
But if Crichton felt the heat, then how bad would the Peacekeepers feel it?

"How you doin'?" Crichton asked. "I bet you're thirsty. I know I am."

The Peacekeepers did not reply.

"What?" Crichton said. "You don't want to talk? We've got all the time in the world!"

At that exact moment, clouds began to hide the suns from their sights, and Crichton felt the temperature dropping a little bit.

"Damn." he thought to himself.

"Stun the prisoner." the commanding officer said.

Crichton saw a flash of light and suddenly he fell to the floor.

He couldn't move.

"Nice plan." Harvey whispered into his ears.

"Frell you." Crichton replied, although he couldn't move his lips.

Crichton saw the Peacekeepers approach him as he lay paralysed on the grass.

"Take him to our vehicle." the commanding officer said.

The soldiers would have done as he ordered, but then the suns returned as it's rays of light burrowed it's way through the dark clouds.

"I can't, sir." one of the soldiers said, as they tried to lift him off the ground. "He's too heavy."

"The heat, sir." The other soldier said. "It's too much."

All knew what was going to happen if they stayed in the heat much longer.  
'Living Death' frightened all Sebaceans.

The soldier dropped his weapon.

Suddenly, Crichton felt his ability to move, coming back to him.

It seemed that paralyses of the prisoner could only be sustained by holding the button down.  
When they let go, the paralyses fades away, and the prisoner can move again.

"Soldier!" the commanding officer said. "I command you...to carry the prisoner...to our vehicle..."

Now the heat even got to the officer.

They all started to take off their armour and uniforms, as they desperately tried to find a way to cool off.

But it didn't work.

They all fell down to the ground, one by one, next to Crichton, who could move his hands again.  
He knew that he would have to act quickly, if he were to escape the Peacekeepers now.

"Run, Forrest." John said to himself. "Run!"

But he couldn't run.  
He was barely able to crawl.

"Crichton!" the commanding officer shouted at him as he saw him crawling away.

Slowly, Crichton was able to move his legs again and he got up and started walking away.

He had almost left the field, when a hand suddenly pulled him down again.

Grass and dirt was on his face, which he spit out, and as he looked behind him, he saw the commanding officer pursuing him.  
The Peacekeeper crawled over the floor, pulling Crichton's shoe so that he wouldn't get away.

Crichton did not know that they had encountered each other before.

The commanding officer was Aenos, Peacekeeper Commando, promoted to Squad Leader, assigned once more to capture Crichton.

Crichton did not recognise him, because at the time of their first encounter, it was Harvey who was in control of Crichton's body.

Aenos suffered from the heat, but he wouldn't let Crichton escape him again.

Crichton desperately tried to get loose.

He kicked Aenos in the face and crawled away.

Aenos crawled after him.

They both crawled a couple of metras into the forest, crawling through dead branches and places crawling with insects.

As Crichton managed to get up, Aenos followed his example and tried to run after him.

However, their struggle ended abruptly, as both men were snared into a great net, like fish caught by fishermen, and both struggled to get loose.

As faces crept up from the woods and bushes, both Crichton and Aenos knew that resisting would be pointless...


	17. Fight

Jothee walked out of Moya's storage bay, carrying Peacekeeper weapons he had grabbed from some old containers.

As he turned the corner, he saw Chiana standing in front of him.

Jothee knew what she was doing, but ignored her.

"I'm going with you." Chiana said.

"You are NOT coming with me." Jothee replied violently.

"Frell you!" Chiana said. "You maybe D'Argo's son, but I love D'Argo too, and-and I want to help him just as much as you do!"

Jothee stopped for a moment, as he tried to come up with a reply to stop Chiana from coming with him.

He was mad at her.  
The love which once burned for her not so long ago, now only strengthened his hatred toward the grey Nebari girl.

It was her fault he lost his father's love.  
And now he was going to lose him entirely, and with D'Argo's death Jothee would lose any chance for reconciliation between father and son.  
And his chance to make it up to him.  
To prove himself a worthy son, and to prove that his rescue from the slavers wasn't just a waste of his father's time, money and love.

He would lose his father, for the second time.

All because of Chiana.

But the only thing that grew stronger then Jothee's hatred towards Chiana, was his hatred towards himself.

"I'm going with you, if you like it or not." Chiana said.

"Fine." Jothee replied, not knowing what else to say.

Jothee knew that he was wasting his valuable time talking to Chiana, when he could be saving D'Argo's life.

He had to be quick, before his father would freeze to death.

"We'll be back shortly, Pilot." Chiana said over the comms, as they entered the Transport Pod and prepared for departure. "And when we're back, we're going to heal your pain, just like we promised. Don't worry."

Chiana felt she was forgetting something.

Suddenly she remembered the girl from the cryo-pod.

Joolushko.

Chiana shook her head.

They were going to be back within a couple of microts, she hoped.  
In the meantime, that girl could handle herself.

The Pod ascended from the floor and left the docking-bay, as it headed for the cold planet.

Moxan smiled.

He had just received a, did he dare say it, wonderful transmission.

All his problems would be over soon.

Silently and carefully he spread the word, until every one of his officers knew of the news.

It was time.

Guns were loaded and pistols were drawn.

Consoles were encrypted. Passwords were changed.

Doors were locked and the security was tightened.

A plan was designed. A strategy devised.

Soldiers walked through the marble corridors, with Moxan as their leader, walking in front of the squad.

Moxan opened the doors of his control centre with a violent push.  
The steel doors smashed against the walls.

Moxan looked directly at Scorpius, knowing that he had his full attention.

"I warned you!" Moxan said, pointing at Scorpius. "I told you to go back to your Command Carrier, but you wouldn't listen!"

Moxan threw a datapad at Scorpius, who caught the device confidently.

The device displayed a message.  
It was from Peacekeeper High Command, and it was addressed to him.

It was an order to end his hunt for the human Crichton and to return to High Command, where his exploits in the Unchartered Territories will be examined and judged.

During his examination, his Command Carrier will be assigned to a new captain.

The letter was formal and clear, but Scorpius knew what it truly meant.

He had to return to High Command, where he must surrender his vessel and be imprisoned and executed.

Peacekeeper justice is the worst form of justice. Especially in the corrupt High Command, where allies can turn enemies when their backs are turned.

Scorpius threw the datapad on the floor.

"High Command orders your retrieval." Moxan said. "And who am I to disobey orders?"

Scorpius saw how the loyalty of his soldiers around him began to waver.

He had to act swiftly.

Scorpius was never going to surrender to Moxan.  
Not in a million years.

"How many admirals and commandants did you bribe to get this order, I ask of you." Scorpius said.

"All of them." Moxan said. "But it was not I who bribed them."

"Of course," Scorpius thought to himself. "He had help. An accomplice. Moxan would've never dared to do such a drastic assault by himself."

"Scorpius." Moxan spoke. "If you do not leave this planet and return to High Command at once, I will arrest you in name of the Peacekeeper Alliance."

"I told you, if you should stand in my way again, I will kill you..." Scorpius spoke chillingly.

"All right boys, kill him!" Moxan ordered.

"This is my gift, John Crichton...to you..."

Those strange words, spoken by a strange voice, echoed through John's mind and subconscious.

He woke up and opened his eyes.

He was hanging upside down from a tree.

Strange, dark, humanoid creatures stared at him with smiles on their faces.

Crichton closed his eyes.

And then he opened them again.

"Damn, they're still there." he whispered.

He looked around.

Two others were hung upside down in trees as well.

John recognised one of them as the Peacekeeper who chased him through the woods.

The other, also Sebacean, was dead.

As it's smell reached Crichton, he knew that he died a couple of weeks ago.

"Ah!" a voice suddenly said. "One of them is awake!"

The blood rushed to Crichton's head, as he watched the dark creatures step aside for their master: a tall, bald man, not Sebacean, and with a metal plate on the right side of his skull.

The man spoke apparently with a British accent, which was funny, because the man had probably never spoken English before in his entire life.

"Feeling comfortable?" the man asked amused.

"Cut me the frell down!" Crichton shouted.

The man laughed.

"Oh, you Peacekeepers are all the same." he said.

"I am not a Peacekeeper!" Crichton said.

"Trust a Peacekeeper to tell you he isn't a Peacekeeper!" the man said to Crichton.

"I am telling you the truth!" Crichton shouted, as he was desperately trying to break free of his bonds.

"I find that rather hard to believe." the man spoke.

"You look exactly the same as a Peacekeeper. Same size. Same weight. Same smell."

The alien walked around Crichton, who was hanging upside down, and the alien began spinning John round and round, which John found really annoying and which began to make him dizzy.

"Same skin. Same bones. Same teeth."

The alien grabbed his jaw and looked at his teeth.

"Although the brain cavity appears smaller." The man said as he grabbed hold of his skull.

Then he let go of Crichton, and spun him round and round with his hands.  
It reminded John of astronaut-training.

It amused Kaarvok.

"Because you have all the qualifications. of a Peacekeeper, you MUST be a Peacekeeper, and therefore you MUST be lying, which also qualifies you as a Peacekeeper." the alien said witty.

"I am NOT a Peacekeeper!" John shouted. "I'm HUMAN!"

The man sighed.

"You are quite persistent, aren't you?"

"I am not a Peacekeeper! The Peacekeepers were chasing me through the woods!  
They were trying to capture me! Trying to kill me! Doesn't that mean I am NOT with the Peacekeepers?"

The man turned to one of the dark creatures.

The creature whispered something into the man's ears.

The man then approached Crichton again.

His long coat touched the ground, and Crichton noticed he had one white eye (probably blind) and one black eye.

His face was pale and sweaty.

"You apparently speak the truth." The man spoke.

"One of my 'Xarai' told me that the Peacekeepers were indeed chasing you.  
You spoke the truth about that, and therefore there is a chance that you spoke the truth about your identity. So now I face a dilemma."

Crichton noticed that the man hated Peacekeepers.  
And by the way he was dressed, Crichton figured he once was imprisoned by Peacekeepers.  
Probably for a very long time.

"I can believe your word and let you go. Or..."

The man smiled.

"I can make you prove that your story is true."

"And how do I do that?" Crichton asked.

Crichton noticed two little, but bright, blue lights which were placed on the metal plate on the right side of the alien's head, and also marks of burned skin and scorched flesh surrounding the metal plate.  
He must've been in a horrible accident...

Suddenly Crichton was cut down and was pulled to the floor by several of the dark creatures.  
As Crichtons saw their faces up-close, he noticed that they bared much resemblance to Sebaceans...

They lifted him onto their shoulders and brought them to a large pit or well in the ground.  
Unexpectedly, they threw him in.

Crichton fell three meters down and into shallow water.  
Everything was mud and stone.

"What are you doing!" Crichton shouted all wet and dirty.

"I have made a decision!" the alien shouted to him as he stood on the bottom of the well.

Another man was thrown into the well with Crichton.

It was the Peacekeeper Squad Leader who was trying to capture him, not long before this chaos.

It was Aenos.

"You must prove yourself to me!" the alien spoke.

The dark creatures gathered around the well, and watched enthusiastic to what was going to happen.

"And how do I prove myself?" Crichton asked, although he knew what the alien was going to say.

"Simple!" the alien replied. "Kill the Peacekeeper!"

Crichton looked at Aenos.

Aenos looked at Crichton.

This was a test for Crichton.

And in order to pass, he had to kill a person.

And if he didn't, he would be killed.  
Eaten alive, probably.

It was kill, or be killed.

"My name is Kaarvok, by the way!" the alien spoke witty.

"Let the games begin!"


	18. Blood

They looked at each other once more, trying to comprehend what was going on.

Aenos was just aggressively woken up by Kaarvok and thrown in a pit.

He had no idea where he was, and what he was supposed to do.

But slowly he began to understand what was going on.

Did he have to fight Crichton? Was it a duel? A death-match?

Everything was wet and dirty in the damp and dark pit.

Both Crichton as Aenos were covered with mud.

Kaarvok and his army of critters looked down upon them, hoping for some action.

Some entertainment.

Some blood.

Crichton wasn't going to give in to Kaarvok's sick game.

He wasn't going to kill for someone else's amusement.

"Why not, John?" Harvey asked him as he appeared beside Crichton in the dark and gloomy pit.

"This won't be the first Peacekeeper you've killed, and I'm certain it won't be your last."

"This is different, Harv." John spoke.

"Is there a difference between smashing into someone's Prowler as you escape, or choking a man to save your own life? Dead is dead, John. There is no difference."

"There is, Harv." John said. "The difference is looking someone in the eyes as you..."

"No John!" Harvey interrupted loudly. "This is about survival! And you know it!  
Kill him, and save yourself!"

"No!" John shouted.

But Aenos thought otherwise.

He rushed towards the human and forced Crichton to defend himself.

After a few hits to the stomach and face, John knocked Aenos to the ground.

He fell splashing into the water.

"Come on!" Aenos said to Crichton. "Kill me!"

"So this is how I am going to die, huh?" D'Argo thought to himself.

"Alone and stranded in the middle of this freezing planet."

D'Argo fell down to his knees, knowing that he could not go on anymore.

There was no point.

He had escaped the Scarrans, but ran into the arms of certain death.

Was he a coward?

No, he thought not.

D'Argo felt his heart freeze.

He hoped to find some other way of leaving the planet.

Perhaps there was someone to help him out there, in another facility somewhere, but there was no-one on this barren, inhospitable, cold world.

If there ever had been any life on this planet, it would've probably left ages ago.

He was going to die.

D'Argo closed his eyes.

The last thing he felt before he was overcome by the blizzard, was snow and ice.

An arn passed.

A large and mysterious figure appeared from the cold mists.

His feet burned through the cold and soft snow.

"I have found the Luxan, my brother." Gyrshna said over the comms.

His hot, boiling, blood kept the Scarran warm in the cold blizzard.

"Good." Artokh answered him. "Perhaps we will be much more successful in acquiring the information we need from him. The Hynerian hasn't been very helpful."

"I will take him back to the facility." Gyrshna responded.

"I will await your arrival."

Gyrshna approached the frozen Luxan, who was laid unconscious on the cold ground, which was covered in snow.

The Scarran mistook the sound of an approaching Transport Pod for the sound of the blizzard.

"There he is! We've found him!" Jothee shouted happily.

"There's someone else with him!" Chiana said, who sat beside Jothee in the Pod.

"It's a Scarran." Jothee said, recognising the shape of the figure.

Everything was white, and the enormous brightness of it all almost blinded both Chiana and Jothee as they looked down upon this world of ice.

The wind grew stronger as the Transport Pod approached Gyrshna.

He looked up and saw the vessel flying towards him.

"What are you doing?" Jothee shouted at Chiana as he saw the ship move closer to the ground.

"Slow down! We're going to crash!"

"Oh, no we're not." Chiana said.

She went faster and faster, but also lower and lower.

Gyrshna did not recognise the craft, but knew that the Luxan's friends were flying it, attempting to rescue their friend.

The loud noise of the approaching and speeding Pod woke up D'Argo from his cold nap in the snow.

He couldn't feel his face anymore, and tasted the snow in his mouth.

He saw the Scarran standing over him.

"You're going to get us killed!" Jothee shouted at Chiana.

D'Argo kicked at the Scarran's feet.

The Scarran looked round and saw D'Argo getting up on his feet.

"We're going to crash!" Jothee shouted again.

Chiana ignored him, and screamed her deadly battle-cry.

As Gyrshna approached him, he was scooped off of his feet by the Transport Pod.

He was decapitated and his lifeless body was thrown away.

It fell to the ground with a soft bang.

Gyrshna's head was swept away and eventually touched the ground some distance away from his body.

D'Argo couldn't believe what he just saw.

He passed out before he could ponder about it more.

"You almost killed us!" Jothee said. "You almost killed D'Argo!"

"But I didn't, did I?" Chiana said.

She slowed down the Pod and turned it around in order to land the craft close to D'Argo's position.

The Scarran's hot and boiling blood poured unto the snowy ground.

It melted away the snow.

And ice.

Chiana landed the Pod, not knowing that she had just landed on a frozen lake.

"Kill me!" Aenos said.

"I'm not going to kill you!" Crichton replied.

His jaw was throbbing with pain from Aenos's punches, and he tasted blood in his mouth.

"You must!" Aenos said. "This is your test! If you fail the test, you die! And I cannot allow that! Scorpius wants you alive!"

Crichton laughed.

"Even as you are stuck in this damned pit in the ground, you're still trying to be the loyal Peacekeeper."

"Always." Aenos said.

He charged at Crichton again, but the human anticipated his attack and threw him to the other side of the pit.

As Aenos hit the wall, he plunged into the shallow water for the second time.

"You must really be dying to get your medal, don't you?" Crichton said.

Aenos crawled back upon his feet and wiped the filthy water out of his face.

"I already have a medal." Aenos said.

He did.

But Aenos felt he didn't deserve it.

"Well, congratulations." Crichton said.

"I got it for capturing you." Aenos said.

"Yes, it was I who found you adrift in space." Aenos said, responding to the look on Crichton's face.

"I rescued you, and handed you to Scorpius. It wasn't difficult. You practically fell into my lap."

"It was luck that gave me that medal." Aenos thought to himself. "I do not deserve it."

"So you think you don't deserve that medal, because of that?" Crichton said.

His psychology-classes had finally paid off.

"No, I do not deserve my medal." Aenos said. "I must prove my worth. And I will prove it by sacrificing myself!"

Aenos tried to hit Crichton, but he ducked and punched Aenos in the guts.

"For what purpose?" Crichton said. "So that you can get your name on some Memorial for Fallen Soldiers?"

"The Wall of Fallen Heroes." Aenos corrected him, as he got up again and wiped his hair out of his eyes.

"Ah, so you do have one of those." Crichton said.

"Well, then picture if you will. If I kill you, who's going to write your name on that damned wall, huh? No-one! You will be lying here, rotting away in this pit..."

Crichton noticed some small humanoid remains lying on the ground next to Aenos.

"They'll report you missing in action!" Crichton shouted. "And you'll be just another nameless skeleton in this godforsaken pit! And you know what?"

Crichton gazed at Aenos's eyes.

"They won't miss you. Why? Because you are replaceable."

Crichton's words echoed through Aenos's mind.

What if he was right?

"No!" Aenos shouted as he rushed towards Crichton and grabbed his neck.

"I am a Peacekeeper Commando! I will not neglect my purpose in life! I must do my duty! Kill me!"

"No!"

Crichton punched him away, and Aenos fell unconscious into the shallow water.

For a moment, Crichton was left speechless and numb, but then he turned to the sky.

"Kaarvok!" he shouted, blinded by the sun.

He could see the silhouettes of Kaarvok and his minions in the sunlight.

"I will not kill this man!"

Crichton gasped for air.

"You know why?"

Aenos crawled up and attended his wounded face.

"Because I am NOT a Peacekeeper!"

Kaarvok smiled.

"Now I know you speak the truth." he said.

"But still...you look very similar."

Kaarvok examined Crichton for a couple of microts before standing up.

"How very odd..." he said.

His Xarai looked at him, and when Kaarvok noticed that they did, he turned to them.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Get them out of there!"

His minions growled and carried out their master's wishes.

The device on Kaarvok's wrist shined in the yellow sunlight.


	19. Desperation

"You handled that quite well, John." Harvey said to Crichton.

"Very clever. I am definitely impressed."

Harvey sat comfortably and silently in a large, black arm-chair, in the middle of a large white room.

He held a still smoking cigarette in his hands, and he wore a black tux and shades.

John noticed the still dripping blood stains on the walls of the white room, as he left the doorway and walked towards Harvey.

"But I must warn you." Harvey said as he sat up straight.

"Do not trust this Kaarvok. Understand that he is in control right now, and he won't let you go that easily."

"I shouldn't trust Kaarvok..." John repeated as he slowly entered the room.

Mud dripped off of his worn out shoes.

"But why should I trust you? I still remember what you did to Aeryn..."

"My allegiance lies with Scorpius." Harvey said. "You know this..."

Harvey stood up from his arm-chair.

"However, things have changed. I neither have the power nor the strength to overtake your mind. Therefore it is impossible for me to carry out Scorpius's wishes.

So I have made a decision."

As he said it, he walked to Crichton and put his arm around his shoulder as he guided him across the room.

"I have accepted my situation, and decided to look towards the future."

Harvey's eyes were invisible behind his dark sunglasses.

"My fate, and that of the wormhole-knowledge, lies in your hands, and therefore I dedicate my functions to you, John Crichton."

Harvey let go of John and jumped in front of him.

He bowed to Crichton.

"My services are at your disposal."

"Why in hell would you do this?" John said.

"To help you. To guide you." Harvey answered.

"So you can bring me back to Scorpius?" John said violently and slightly paranoid.

"So you may live." Harvey replied.

John looked upon Harvey.

Conversations in his mind seemed so normal the last couple of days.

Suddenly a large, bright blue light appeared in the centre of the room.

A soft, almost heavenly voice, grew louder and louder as John approached the apparition.

"This is my gift..." the voice said. "To you, John Crichton..."

John recognised the voice only vaguely. He knew who it was, but he just couldn't remember.

"Remember me. Remember my love. And thank you, John Crichton. For everything."

The voice reminded Crichton of the old record player his uncle used to have.

"For everything..."

The blue light faded away, and left John and Harvey looking at each other.

Speechless.

As Harvey put his cigarette to his mouth, John grabbed it and threw it away, saying: "No smoking in my head!"

FLASH

"Let me out of here!" Crichton shouted.

He rattled the wooden bars of his natural cage.

The wood reminded him of bamboo.

"You should've killed me." Aenos whispered in the other cell.

John sighed as he looked to the ground.

"I saved your life!" he said firmly. "The least you can do is show me some gratitude."

"You did not save my life." Aenos replied. "All you did was condemn both of us to a life of torture."

John began to hate the tone of Aenos's voice.

And knowing that he could probably be in this cell for a while, he wasn't keen on the idea of spending the rest of his life with this guy.

"I made the right decision." John stated. "Fact."

"It is a fact that we will die here horribly." Aenos said.

"Can I make a suggestion?" Crichton said. "Shut the frell up!"

He smashed the wooden cell with his fist.

It hurt.

"I don't need your depressive comments right now! I've got enough of those in my head!"

Harvey smiled.

John waved that image out of his head.

"Killing you would have lead to nothing!" Crichton said. "I am smart enough, ugly enough and insane enough to know that! Peacekeepers only think of their honour and their guns.

Violence and death. And you know what? I'm sick of it!"

Crichton walked circles in his small cell.

"I am sick of Peacekeepers! I am sick of Scorpius! I am sick of DEATH!"

Some of the primitive and wild Xarai creatures looked at him from the woods.

"No more..." John whispered.

"Killing you would only make me like you...A Peacekeeper..."

"Tough words..." Aenos said. "For an inferior species..."

"Inferior?" Kaarvok asked.

He appeared in front of their cells.

"Call him what you like, but he is not inferior to you." Kaarvok said.

His white eye looked at Crichton, but John suspected that it didn't see him.

"Whatever you say," Aenos said to the alien. "_Krishool_."

Crichton shook his head.

The translator microbes didn't translate that one correctly.

Crichton thought that it was a swearword of sorts, however when he saw Kaarvok's smile, he knew that it wasn't.

_Krishool_ had to mean something else.

"Tell me," Kaarvok said. "Do you recognise any of these creatures?"

Kaarvok pointed at the dark creatures called 'Xarai' who stood behind him in the woods.

Dozens of them.

"No," Aenos answered. "I do not recognise the species. What are they? Some sort of mutated Vorga?"

Kaarvok couldn't help but smile as he looked Aenos in his eyes.

"They are Peacekeepers." Kaarvok said.

One of the Xarai behind Kaarvok suddenly turned his head, as if he heard something familiar.

Something from his past.

Something from a different lifetime perhaps.

For a microt it started thinking about the word. That strange word.

He even thought it could well be his name, before some other Xarai distracted him and all thoughts and reason abandoned the creature, making him forget the word.

"Peacekeepers." Kaarvok repeated when he saw the look on Aenos's face. "Yes."

Chiana stepped out of the warm Pod and into the cold snow.

The blizzard blinded her.

"D'Argo!" she shouted in vain.

She looked around in search for D'Argo.

He had to be lying around somewhere.

Cold wind blew snow into her face and hair.

It made her even paler and more white then usual.

"I can't find him!" Chiana shouted to Jothee.

She suddenly grew worried that either the cold would get to him, or that the snow would suffocate him.

"D'Argo!"

A couple of metras away, blood was still pouring out of the Scarran's body.

Cracks formed in the ice, melted and weakened by the heat of Gyrshna's blood.

Perhaps in his death, this was his revenge upon his attackers.

The cracks in the ice were growing bigger and bigger, until it reached the Transport Pod.

The weight of the enormous craft weakened the ice even more.

But neither Chiana nor Jothee noticed this effect in the ice.

"D'Argo!"

Chiana had found D'Argo, covered in snow only some metras away.

But as she ran towards his unconscious body, the ice began to crack under her weight.

She fell through a crack in the ice.

Water reached her waist, but Chiana managed to climb up.

"Jothee!" she shouted, knowing what was going to happen. "Take the Pod into the air!"

She was wet and cold and numb.

At first, Jothee didn't understand what she was saying, but then the Pod started to shock and heave.

The ice cracked and the Pod fell into the water.

If Jothee hadn't acted in time, it would've sank to the bottom.

"D'Argo!" Chiana shouted.

She crawled through the snow and breaking ice.

The blizzard blinded her and made her deaf, but she tried to save D'Argo nonetheless.

D'Argo slipped through a crack and fell into the water.

As Chiana arrived to the place where he used to lay, she couldn't find him.

She stuck her hands in the water, but she couldn't feel him.

He was gone.

"D'Argo! No!"

Her tears froze as they touched her white beautiful skin.

"Chiana!" Jothee shouted over the comms as he turned the Pod into her direction. "Get in the Pod!"

"No!"

"There is nothing we can do!"

The ice broke in a radius of 25 metras.

It wasn't nearly large enough to even be seen from outer space as a pimple on the skin of a giant white face, but it was large enough to drown them all.

Gyrshna's body and head also fell into the water and sank to the bottom, where no-one would see him again.

"Chiana! You're going to die if you stay there any longer!"

"I'm not leaving without him!" Chiana shouted back at Jothee.

She crawled over the remaining blocks of ice, trying her best to keep her from falling into the water.

She tried to see where he was.

Anything.

His face. His arm.

A sign from the gods...

Anything.

"Please, please, please," she muttered, before diving headfirst into the freezing water.

Jothee navigated the Pod over the place where she disappeared.

His heart raced.

Desperately he tried to look out the window, hoping to see her face coming out of the water.

Or even D'Argo's.

But he knew that that would be impossible.

D'Argo was dead.

He knew it in his mind, but his heart refused to give in.

"Come on, Chiana." He said to himself. "Come on."

He was angry with her. But he didn't want her dead.

No, a part of him loved her still, but he ignored that part of himself, knowing that he could not love her.

He should not love her.

Because his father loved her.

Because deep down inside, Chiana didn't love Jothee.

And now he was going to lose both loved ones to the icy water of this godforsaken planet.

"Chiana!"

As the words left his mouth in desperation, he saw a familiar face coming from the water, fighting for air.

She was alive.

D'Argo was alive.


	20. Krishool

"You are lying!" Aenos shouted.

"No." Kaarvok said. "I never lie. These creatures once were your fellow comrades, but now they are nothing more then my servants. My family."

Krishool.

The word still roamed through Crichton's mind.

What did it mean?  
Was it just a swearword?  
Or was is something else?  
A name even?  
A title?  
Something far more secret?

"No!" Aenos said. "You lie! Peacekeepers would never bow down to your wishes! They would die before crawling into the dust before you!"

Kaarvok smiled.

"I am afraid that you are wrong. Again." Kaarvok said. "You see, when Sebaceans, and any other species for that matter, are twinned, their brains will be damaged."

"Twinning?" Crichton asked.

"Yes, I prefer to call it that, instead of cloning."

"Cloning?" Crichton asked.

"Well, let me show you."

With a swish of his hand, Kaarvok fired a beam of light at Aenos, which covered the Sebacean in a large, organic bubble.  
For a moment, Crichton thought Kaarvok killed Aenos, but that moment was brief.  
Kaarvok said cloning, not killing.

And it didn't take long for Crichton to see something happening inside the bubble.

Something moved, and something split into two separate beings, after which the bubble burst and two Aenos's were sitting in the cell.

"What did you do to me!" they shouted, before looking upon each other in awe.

Aenos couldn't believe his eyes.

Both of them couldn't believe their eyes.

It was like looking into a mirror, only the mirror had a mind of it's own...

"I 'twinned' you." Kaarvok said witty. "You are the same. Equal. But different."

Kaarvok's eyes dwelled at Crichton, and John knew why.

He looked exactly like a Sebacean, but he wasn't.

"Imagine me 'twinning' you over thirty times." Kaarvok said to the two Aenos's.

"Forty times. Fifty times!"

Both Aenos's didn't know what Kaarvok was talking about.

Either he didn't understand him, because he wasn't a technician but a soldier, or because he was too shocked to even think straight.

But John knew.

Being a scientist in the Unchartered Territories really paid off.  
Being a scientist with a gun paid off even more.

"The brain-damage would be so severely that even a man with the most finest of minds would become...yes...something like that!"

Kaarvok pointed at his Xarai.

"The beings which I lovingly call Xarai." he said.

"But the only difference between a Xarai and a Peacekeeper is the gun which he holds in his holster!"

Both Aenos's rushed to attack Kaarvok, but he only laughed as he saw that their arms could not reach him.

"Krishool." Crichton repeated in his mind.

"Krishool."

FLASH.

"Does this mean you accept my proposal?" Harvey said.

John stood silently in a green and blossoming meadow.

Harvey approached him from the shadows of the trees.

A soft wind blew through the leaves.

Earth's moon stood directly above them in the sky. In broad daylight.

"During the circumstances..." John said to Harvey. "I really don't have a choice, do I?"

"That's splendid news, John." Harvey said as he walked towards him.

"You won't regret this, John." Harvey said.

"If I had a dime for every time someone said that to me..." John said.

"Oh no, John." Harvey said. "No jokes. We're talking business here."

As soon as Harvey said that, the meadow faded away and John and Harv walked right into a casino.

Harvey suddenly wore the cap and clothing of a dealer at poker.

As John walked in, all the people in the casino started clapping.

"Can I get a Hell Yeah!" Harvey shouted as he raised his arm into the air.

"HELL YE-"

The people stopped shouting as John pulled Harvey's arm down.

"No, Harv." John said to him. "No more of this bullshit. No more quotes. No more references..."

"Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn." Harvey said.

John wanted to punch him in the face, but Harvey disappeared and reappeared behind John.

"This is only temporary." John said as he grabbed Harvey and pushed him on top of one of the blackjack-tables.

"You want that chip. I want to live. It's about MY survival. Comprende?"

"Capiche." Harvey said.

A burst of sudden extreme headaches forced John upon the ground.

Harvey felt the pain too, but he did not fall to the ground.

He stood firmly and with clenched fists and eyes closed in the centre of the casino.

He withstood the pain, and forced it back.

The casino withered away behind them, leaving a dark and empty space around them.

"Krishool." John said as he crawled up. "What does it mean?"

Harvey opened his eyes.

"The criminally insane." he answered.

FLASH.

"Hello?" Joolushko shouted through the empty corridors.

She refused to believe this ship was completely empty.

Were there really no other passengers aboard this large, beautiful vessel?

"Chiana?"

She shouted through other corridors of Moya, but no-one, not even the girl who brought her here in the first place, responded to her cries for help.

She was lost.  
She could not find her way.

And she was afraid.  
Terrified.

Although she thought this ship was beautiful, the interior of the ship, especially the ceiling, reminded Joolushko of bones.

Not a pleasant thing to be reminded of when you are afraid, lost and alone.

"Oh, please, God," Joolushko muttered and cried as she walked through the many corridors of Moya.

"Please, please, please don't leave me alone like this. I do not want to die!"

She fell to the ground, in the middle of the walkway, sobbing and crying.

Thinking about the past.

She missed her parents.  
She missed her cousins.  
She missed everyone.

And now she was never going to see all of them again!

"They're probably all dead!" she cried.

Suddenly she looked up, startled by a strange object which she saw moving in the corner of her eye.

It was round and yellow, and seemed to have two eyes, with lights in them.  
It made a low, humming sound as it drove towards her.

"Who are you?" Joolushko asked scared. "What do you want?"

She recognised the thing as a robot.  
It was definitely made out of metallic or hard substances, and it didn't seem to be alive.

She jumped as it made a squeaky sound.

At first she thought it was going to attack her, but then it turned around and moved towards the same direction from where it had just come.

"Do you want me to follow you?" Joolushko said as she made it make another squeaky sound.

She gathered all her courage and followed the little DRD towards Pilot's Den...

"Kaarvok!" Crichton said to the alien as he stuck his head out of his wooden cell.

"You promised you would let me go!" he firmly added.

"Did I?" Kaarvok said. "I really can't remember saying anything like that."

Crichton did not detect any sign of dishonesty about Kaarvok, so apparently he spoke the truth.

"My memory is failing me more often these days." Kaarvok spoke. "I'm getting old you see. And a hundred years imprisoned by the Peacekeepers doesn't actually improve your physical status."

He sighed and scratched his metal plate, like it was just another part of his body.

"I was imprisoned by the Peacekeepers as well." Crichton said. "But I escaped."

He used his words with caution, hoping to gain Kaarvok's trust, although he didn't like the prospect of being friends with a madman.  
Or a mad scientist.

"Really?" Kaarvok asked interested.

He moved closer to Crichton's cell.

John could see the keys to John's cell dangling on Kaarvok's belt...

"Then tell me, how is Moxan these days? Still torturing prisoners?"

John shook his head.

"I don't know who that is. I was imprisoned by a man named Scorpius."

"Scorpius?" Kaarvok said wondering as he touched the wooden cell and looked at the sky.

"Never heard of him." he finally said. "Moxan is the commander of the Peacekeeper facility not far from here. He used to torture his prisoners severely. Badly. Using his precious Luxan weaponry to burn the skin right off our flesh."

He said it as if he watched it in his mind, and enjoyed it.

"The pain was excruciating. But I got my revenge..."

Kaarvok's face began to shine.

"I cut out his eye! And I stole this pretty machine..."

He began to stroke the device on his wrist.

"That's great." John said. "Really. That's fantastic. But putting that aside...  
I need to get off this planet. The Peacekeepers are hunting me down. If I don't leave this planet, they will capture me and put me in that goddamned chair again, and I'm definitely not in the mood for that right now!"

John was tired.  
He wanted to get out.

He wanted to go to bed.

In his head he pictured his bunk in his quarters on Moya.

"The Peacekeepers will stop hunting you when they cannot find you no more." Kaarvok said.

"Yeah," Crichton said. "They probably will, but not Scorpius. Scorpius will come after me no matter what. And he won't stop until either he is dead, or I am his prisoner."

The only problem was that Scorpius refused to die, and keeps on surviving every single attack on his life.

"Then there must be something special about you, no?" Kaarvok said witty and keen.

"This Scorpius fellow must follow you for a reason, does he not?"

"Wormholes." Crichton thought.

"Sebacean or not," Kaarvok said. "You must be valuable."

He smiled.

"And here you are. In my custody. I can't wait to solve your mystery, HUUMAN."

Suddenly there was a loud crack, and both Crichton and Kaarvok turned their heads to see the two Aenos's escape their cell and run for their lives.

Both went into opposite directions as they ran into the forest.

"Capture them!" Kaarvok shouted. "Kill them only if you must!"

The Xarai pursued the two Aenos's.

Clones who hunted clones.

The Xarai ran like animals and reminded John of 'The Planet of The Apes'.

Although both Sebaceans ran pretty fast, there was no way to outrun them, because there were just too many Xarai.

The creatures surrounded them and pulled them to the ground.

As the Xarai brought their prisoners to their master, Kaarvok nodded proud.

"You did well." he said to them as if he spoke to children. "A reward is in order." 

Kaarvok turned to both Aenos's, who laid next to each other on the ground.

With a quick movement, Kaarvok pointed at the Aenos who sat to the right.

"Bring this one back to his cell!" he decided witty.

"You may eat the other one."

John couldn't bare to see what was about to happen.

The Xarai looked upon Aenos with pure bloodlust written in their eyes.

Their rotting, yellow teeth were visible as they opened their mouths and began to feast off Aenos's body.

The Aenos in his cell felt the same as Crichton did. Even worse.

He averted his eyes, knowing that what he was about to see was the most weirdest and scariest sight of all.

His own death.

But Kaarvok saw the Aenos in the cell close his eyes and he pointed at him with no mercy.

"Make him watch." he said coldblooded and smiled.

Three Xarai grabbed his head and forced him to watch.

This was torture like Crichton had never seen before.

Now John knew that he had to get out of here.

Before he would be the next victim to this Doctor Mengele of the Unchartered Territories.

This was a man who loved to play with genetics and blood, specifically blood.

A man who was ruthless and merciless, a criminal and a thief, and a surgeon who would love to cut on his patients.

Without anaesthetics.

And Crichton knew that Kaarvok couldn't wait to begin cutting on him, to see what he was really like on the inside. To see if he really wasn't Sebacean.

Crichton could tell all these things from this the look in Kaarvok's eyes.

Kaarvok's keys felt cold in John's clenched fist.

He had to get out of here.

Fast.


	21. Stress

Three Marauders left the Command Carrier and abandoned the planet's orbit.

They fell from the sky with maximum velocity.

They plummeted towards the planet and absorbed large amounts of heat as they entered the atmosphere.

They headed for a large, red structure which stood in the centre of a large valley between the grey mountains of Yo'brakh.

One of the two large suns which shined on the horizon turned orange as it headed for it's sunset.

As the Marauders swept through the clouds and approached the facility, they made a swift turn and began to brake.

All tree Marauders stopped exactly above the facility, before hovering in mid-air.

Trapdoors opened and twelve soldiers came gliding down a rope as they climbed upon the roof.

"Excellent job." Bracca said.

He was the only one not wearing a helmet.

This was to show his rank and authority over the soldiers he commanded.

"Primary objective." Bracca said. "Rescue."

The soldier's faces were invisible behind the dark glass of their helmets.

Scorpius anticipated an attack of sorts, and ordered Bracca to prepare for action.

Bracca had to leave to the Command Carrier to get reinforcements, but he didn't expect Moxan to act as quickly as he did.

"I will not say more. You have all been debriefed before the launch. Now stand back."

The soldiers did as the lieutenant asked.

Above them, two Marauders headed back to the Carrier to get more men.

Bracca stuck a grenade against one of the windows and stayed clear of the impact.

The explosion shattered the glass and numbed the security-system.

"Move!"

Two soldiers attached their ropes to the roof and jumped down in the opening.

Their infrared visors made them able to see the guards through the smoke and shoot them down before the opposite would occur.

They secured the area and jammed the doors.

"Area secure, sir." one of the soldiers reported.

"Nicely done." Bracca said proud.

They had just entered one of the southern wings of the facility.

Scorpius was located in the northern wing, the control centre, before his signal was cut off.

They had to find him.

As all soldiers entered the structure by entering through the broken window, Bracca ordered them to move on.

But as they entered the next chamber, they were nearly engulfed with pulse-fire.

Bracca had underestimated the security-system of Moxan's facility...

John didn't recognise the mysterious objects the Xarai carried past his cell, although it didn't take long before he did.

His Marauder.

They were disassembling it. Scavenging it.

God knows why, but John suspected that to survive out here in this hot jungle and on this inhospitable planet you would need everything, use everything and anything, to create a place to live.

Predators stalked the jungle.

Crichton had seen how Kaarvok's Xarai dragged some disgusting looking corpses of animals into the camp, and after which they would eat them.

Crichton still held the keys to his cell clenched in his fist.

But he couldn't escape.

Not just yet.

The Xarai would capture him in an instant if he were to step out of his cell right now.

Crichton knew this.

He remembered what happened to Aenos when he tried to escape.

Both of them.

Crichton looked at the sky.

He waited for nightfall.

Shadows and darkness are his ally.

At least, that's what Harvey said to him.

John only hoped Kaarvok would never notice that his keys are missing...

"We can't get out of here." Aenos began muttering. "We can never get out of here!"

John just stared into the forest as he listened to the Peacekeeper's cries.

"I was right to say that we were going to die here." Aenos resumed. "I've already died once, but because of Kaarvok's cloning-device, we can now die ten times! A hundred times! He can keep cloning us and keep killing us until our cells will ultimately turn to dust."

"Twinning." Crichton said. "Not cloning. _Twinning_."

"Kaarvok will pay for what he did to me." Aenos whispered cold.

"Everyone searches for vengeance in the Unchartered Territories." Crichton said calmly, and half joking.

"The only thing which stops them from finding it is either fate or bad timing."

Crichton turned his head to look at Aenos.

"And usually those two are the same."

"Timing?" Aenos asked wondering what Crichton meant.

"Timing." Crichton answered as he showed him the object which he held in his hand.

Aenos's eyes began to shine.

"Gentlemen!" a voice suddenly said.

Crichton swiftly hid the keys in his pocket as Kaarvok appeared in front of their cells.

Kaarvok liked to sneak up on people. He liked scaring them.

Lingering in the shadows, like a ghost.

It made him feel powerful.

His eyes examined John.

"Did he see the keys?" John thought to himself.

His hopes for escape diminished slowly as Kaarvok approached the cell.

"Are you comfortable?" Kaarvok asked amused.

"We're great, Karvey." Crichton said. "Now go away."

The keys almost seemed to burn in John's pocket.

"I suggest you aim your anger at someone else. You do not want me to put you back into that pit, now do you?"

"No." Crichton said firmly, as he looked Kaarvok straight in the eye.

John concluded that he didn't know about the keys.

"I wouldn't want that." John said.

Crichton honestly did not want to be thrown into that pit.

It was a ghastly place, and to escape from it would be impossible.

Looking back to the fight he fought in there with Aenos, Crichton concluded that it all was a waste of time.

Kaarvok would've locked them up anyway.

The only reasons why Kaarvok made them fight was to find out if Crichton spoke the truth.

And because he was bored.

"Well, it wasn't an entire waste." John thought to himself. "I'm still alive, aren't I?"

"Tonight I'll put you out of your misery, human." Kaarvok said.

"Tonight, when the three moons are full, an historic occasion, I will finally find out what you are made of, human."

"My name is Crichton." John said. "John Crichton."

"Crichton..." Kaarvok said. "John Crichton. Tonight, at midnight, you will die. Or at least, one of you will die. One John Crichton, out of many."

"What makes you so sure I will die?" John asked.

"No patient of mine as ever survived my treatment." Kaarvok said witty, almost smiling at the prospect of murder.

"You really are one frelling sunnavabitch, aren't you?" Crichton said to Kaarvok before he walked away.

Crichton turned to Aenos as he felt it was safe enough to talk without being overheard.

"We have till midnight." John said.

"It won't be long until midnight," Aenos said. "The sky is already turning black."

"Don't worry." Crichton said. "My plan will work."

"You have a plan?" Aenos said.

"Not yet." Crichton answered. "But I'll come up with something."

He had till midnight to think of it.

To think of a way to escape.

Time wasn't on his side, but Crichton always felt that he worked well under stress.

At least, that was his opinion.


	22. Collaboration

A soft feeling crawled down her spine as Joolushko slowly stepped through the doorway leading to Pilot's Den, following the DRD as it squeaked as a sign to keep on following him.

Or her.

Joolushko did not know if the little robot was either male or female.

"Can you make any other noise then that awkward squeaky sound?" Joolushko asked the little yellow droid.

It responded with another squeaky sound.

"Right." Joolushko said.

As she looked up, she gasped for air as she saw this enormous room in front of her.

And a strange, giant blue creature sitting in the centre, behind a great console.

The creature seemed asleep.

As Joolushko looked down she saw the yellow robot driving towards the centre of the chamber.

Joolushko knew that this had to be the most important chamber of the ship.

The heart of the ship.

The bridge.

Something of certain importance or significance.

She looked up.

The ceiling went on and on into the sky.

She looked down.

She could look all the way down, to the lower tiers of the ship and the entire structure and interior of the ship was visible from here.

It amazed Joolushko.

"Chiana, is that you?"

The creature began to speak.

And Joolushko understood it!

His eight limbs began to move and the creature looked her straight in the eye.

"Who are you?" Pilot asked Joolushko.

He feared her, but did not sense any hostility.

In fact, he noticed the tears in her eyes, and began to wonder why she was crying.

Joolushko began to realise that this creature was the reason the little droid asked to follow it.

It wanted her to meet it. This blue creature.

"My name is Joolushko Tunai Fenta Hovalis." she answered as if she had memorised the sentence.

Which she had.

"How..." Pilot asked with great difficulty, wondering why he did not sense her. "How did you get on board?"

"I came with Chiana." Joolushka answered.

Her amazed eyes wandered through the room.

Pilot could see her trying not to look down.

Her red hair transformed slowly into a soft mixture of orange and gold, which surprised Pilot.

He had never seen anything like that happening in front of his eyes.

"She helped me." Joolushko said. "Well, not exactly...I followed her. And now I can't find her."

"She went back to the planet." Pilot said softly.

"What? She's gone? I can't believe it! She left me behind!"

She stomped the floor with her foot in anger, but as she did it, she quickly averted her eyes as she looked down.

Joolushko's hair turned into a soft brown colour as tears rained down on her cheeks.

"She will be back..." Pilot said. "She told me –she told me she'd be back..."

Sudden pains and electrical surges made his head go numb.

"What is going on?" Joolushko said.

"Help me..." Pilot said to her. "Please. The pain is too much. Joolushko..."

The entire ship began to shudder and shake.

"What is happening?" Joolushko said as she fell to the ground, more out of own volition then because of the quakes.

"I'm shutting down all power to the entire ship!" Pilot shouted in agony and stress.

"I'm opening all hatches and doors to outer space!"

Joolushko suddenly realised what that meant.

"No!" she shouted. "We will suffocate! Or even worse!"

"No, I'm opening everything except the hatchways to this chamber!"

The doors to the Den closed loudly.

"That way you will survive."

"Oh." Joolushko said out of lack of better words.

Pilot had temporarily shut down all life-support systems on Moya, except for the systems in the Den.

This way he would save precious energy, which he could use to strengthen himself and Moya.

And to survive a little bit longer.

Pilot sighed as he felt the pain go away.

Not entirely however.

"I need medical attention." Pilot said. "I need help."

The shaking and shuddering of Moya had stopped, however Joolushko could still feel the floors tremble a little bit.

She saw the little yellow robot she followed earlier standing in front of her, blinking with it's eyes and squeaking it's abnormal sound.

"Perhaps the little thing knew that this was going to happen." Joolushko thought.

"Perhaps this little droid just saved her life."

She didn't know that it was Moya, helping her indirectly through the little DRD.

It was Moya who told Pilot to shut down life-support to ease his pain, but when she felt Joolushko and heard her cries, she told him to wait.

She guided her to Pilot, where she would be able to breathe, and where she would be able to help Pilot.

This way she saved both lives.

And they would save each other.

"What can I do to help?" Joolushko said.

Crichton unlocked the crude and primitive lock with Kaarvok's keys which he held in his hands.

The keys were handmade and carved out of wood.

It was magnificent craftsmanship.

As he stepped out of his small, wooden cell he repeated his plan over and over again in his head:

Scavengers.

The Xarai were scavenging parts of the, now damaged, Marauder John flew with.

John opened Aenos's cell.

The Peacekeeper looked ferocious into John's eyes.

He wasn't very keen on working together with Crichton, but to survive one must do everything he can.

Even collaborate with the enemy.

FLASH

"I know he will betray me." John said to Harvey in his mind.

"In the end, one of us will stab the other in the back, and I only hope it is me who does the stabbing."

Harvey looked at John.

"Are you talking about Aenos, or about me?"

FLASH

Scavengers.

John remembered the Xarai taking objects which they found in the forest and bringing them into their camp.

"I hope this plan of yours will work." Aenos said to Crichton.

"It will work." John reassured him.

Scavengers.

John remembered a word the Peacekeepers said as they were about to capture him.

Vehicle.

Something, John hoped, that the Xarai had scavenged out of the forest and taken here.

John and Aenos could use it to escape.

With a fast-moving vehicle like that they could easily outrun the Xarai.

"Come on." Crichton said.

Silently they moved through the forest. Almost tiptoeing on their toes.

As their eyes adjusted to the darkness, they saw many Xarai sleeping on the ground.

The only thing which penetrated the darkness was the blue light of three moons who shined through the large trees, and some powered lights which were scattered throughout the forest by Kaarvok.

"This way." Aenos said. "I think they brought it over here."

Crichton followed the Peacekeeper.

They entered a small encampment of primitive huts and dead trees.

A disgusting smell lingered in the air.

"God, what is that smell!" Crichton wanted to shout, but he didn't.

The silence was only interrupted by the noise of bugs in the forest and the sound of their footsteps as they carefully infiltrated their camp.

Some of the Xarai were still awake.

Three of them were trying to build a fire, but every time they were close to creating one, they jumped away out of fear and trembled the sparks and flames before they could grow.

It was actually kind of sad to look at them, knowing that they were once smart and intelligent men and women, who now were nothing more but animals.

"I found something!" Crichton whispered.

He found what appeared to be hundred of old and new scavenged Peacekeeper objects piled up in the corner of a hut.

He found a pulse-pistol and a half full cartridge of chakun oil.

But he didn't find what he was looking for.

As he turned to Aenos, he quickly hid the gun in his pocket after loading it with ammo.

"Nothing." he said to the Sebacean. "It's got to be someplace else."

"Why don't we just run?" Aenos said. "They're all asleep right now! We don't need bikes to get away from this place! We could go now! Run, now!"

"But if Kaarvok sends his zombie-army after us, we're dead meat." Crichton replied softly, not to disturb the either awake or asleep Xarai.

"They will find us and drag our sorry asses back to our cells."

Harvey assured Crichton that he was right.

"We need speed. We need that bikes. We need..."

"Midnight!" a familiar voice hollered through the night.

Kaarvok was awake and with his holler he awakened all of the Xarai in the camp.

Swiftly Aenos pulled Crichton into the hut.

The shadows prevented them from being seen.

"Prepare everything for the operation!" Kaarvok shouted to his minions.

The smell in the encampment made Crichton almost vomit.

He already tasted it in the back of his mouth.

"If only I had Winona right now..." Crichton said to himself in his mind.

How long before they would be discovered missing?

"There's no more time." Aenos said. "We have to do something, RIGHT NOW. I say run."

"I say NO."

Kaarvok approached from the forest, and did not see the empty cells until he stood in front of them.

"Oh my, Crichton." he whispered to himself. "You are much more challenging then I thought."

He smiled.

"CRICHTON!" he hollered through the woods.

Some birds and bats flew away out of fear of Kaarvok.

"He knows we're gone." Aenos said. "We have to act now or else this was all for nothing!"

There was no more time.

The Xarai ran through the woods in search of him.

It wouldn't be long before they would find them.

Aenos was right.

Crichton had to do something.

Right now.

Crichton sighed.

Why did his plans never work?


	23. Cliffhanger

"Find Crichton." Kaarvok said to his precious Xarai. "Alive."

The Xarai obeyed.

"You may eat the other one." Kaarvok added witty.

FLASH

Harvey stuffed the popcorn in his mouth like a man who has been hungry for his entire life.

The entire cinema was empty. They were the only people in the audience.

"TRAPPED WITH NO WAY OUT" a dark and loud voice said as the last frame of the movie, a car falling of a cliff, froze all of a sudden and the same words appeared on screen.

"HOW WILL OUR HERO ESCAPE?" another sentence of large yellow letters read.

"This is really good!" Harvey said as he kept on eating the popcorn.

"You want some?" Harvey said as he kept the box of popcorn under John's nose.

"I'll pass." the uninterested John Crichton said as he pushed the box back in Harvey's hands.

"I'm only interested in how this is going to end."

"Suit yourself." Harvey said as he leant back into his seat again.

FLASH

The darkness was overwhelming.

Trees and bushes seemed like monsters and ghosts.

Fear was everywhere.

And the Xarai were out there, hunting them.

"I'll create a diversion." Aenos said cold. "You run."

Crichton's mind started to work on top speed.

Xarai were Peacekeepers, Sebaceans, soldiers who served their commanders.

But their minds are destroyed by Kaarvok's device, which destroyed not only their minds but their identity too.

The only thing which remained was their primal instincts.

And their Peacekeeper training.

The training which learned them to serve their master; the only master they knew since the day they were captured. Their torturer and superior: Kaarvok.

Crichton pondered about this over and over.

How could this information help him?

It couldn't!

A part of him hoped Harvey would show up with advice, but the bigger part of John Crichton refused his help completely.

He didn't need that sunnavabitch to help him out.

"No!" Crichton said to Aenos.

"I'm sick of running."

Aenos grabbed Crichton's shoulders out of protest, but John pushed him away.

"And I'm sick of your Peacekeeper attitude." John added.

John drew his gun from his pocket and aimed it at Aenos.

He shoved it right in his face.

"Now frell off."

He aimed it at Aenos for a second, before stepping out of the hut with his gun at the ready.

Several Xarai saw him standing in the encampment and ran to intercept him.

John shot the Sebaceans down with deadly accuracy which surprised even himself.

"Kaarvok!" he shouted. "Let's finish this!"

Silence engulfed them as a strange figure appeared from the shadows.

Followed by dozens of Xarai.

"Lets." Kaarvok simply replied.

As Aenos joined Crichton in the centre of the encampment, which was slowly surrounded by the Xarai, John aimed his weapon at Kaarvok's head.

"You like blood?" Crichton asked him with an insane glow in his eyes.

"You're not looking to the future, John!" Kaarvok said.

"The end does not justify the means." John simply said.

His hand trembled, but was unnoticed in the darkness of the woods.

"Whatever." Kaarvok said from the darkness.

His device glowed with an unnatural light, which made Kaarvok visible in the darkness.

"You will die anyway." Kaarvok said.

He nodded and several Xarai responded to his command.

They attacked from the darkness, jumping on Aenos's back and trying to bite both men.

Crichton shot them before they could reach him and also killed the Xarai which attacked Aenos.

Kaarvok smiled as he watched them fight.

Although Kaarvok cared for the Xarai like a father would, he felt no remorse or sorrow watching them die.

He could always make new family...

After the first wave of attackers were decimated, Crichton turned to Kaarvok, who smiled from within the shadows.

He knew what Crichton was thinking right now.

Crichton's gun would eventually run out of ammo, and if that moment should come, then he was defenceless against the Xarai, who would either tear them to shreds or give him to Kaarvok.

Death awaited both Crichton and Aenos either way.

FLASH

"Primary instincts, John!" Harvey said to John.

His senses were numbed as he felt his mind spin.

"Primary fears!"

FLASH

"Fear." John mumbled.

As Crichton pulled his gun towards himself, both Aenos and Kaarvok thought he was about to surrender.

But they were wrong.

As a high-pitched beep slowly grew louder and quicker, the Xarai panicked and Kaarvok stepped towards John.

Aenos did nothing, but began to fear for his life as he saw the insane and suicidal Crichton holding the overloading pulse-pistol in his hands still.

If he held it in his hands any longer, it would kill him instantly.

Aenos almost tried to stop Crichton, but before he had a chance, John threw it in Kaarvok's hands, before jumping away in the opposite direction, pulling Aenos to the ground.

The explosion echoed through the woods and made even the largest predators of the forest look up and wonder.

Several Xarai were caught in the blast.

Their mutilated bodies laid dead on the floor around where Kaarvok used to stand.

The other Xarai panicked at the sight of the flames which were created by the explosion.

The flames grew as it touched the trees and the wooden huts.

"Primal fear." Crichton said as he grabbed a broken branch of a tree and held it in the fire.

When he pulled it out, Crichton held a burning branch in his hand.

"Primal fear of FIRE!" Crichton shouted.

"You don't like that, do you?" John said to the Xarai as he drove them away with the fire.

Aenos followed him, thinking that Crichton was the most luckiest man alive.

They ran through the forest, leaving the encampment behind and scaring the remaining Xarai away with the burning branch in John's hand.

Dozens of angry eyes followed them through the woods, but left them alone.

"We did it." John thought to himself. "I did it."

He escaped mortal danger once again.

"Crichton!" a voice suddenly hollered behind them.

"You won't get away with this!"

Crichton recognised the figure which stood in front of him, hidden in the darkness.

"You son of a bitch!" Crichton said. "You're still alive."

Kaarvok emerged from the dark.

The three moons shined on his shoulders.

He was burned, wounded, and dying.

The device on his wrist shook and glowed a blue and electric shock, like it was damaged.

"You will pay." Kaarvok whispered.

His voice sounded weak and damaged, but spoke to Crichton with a bitter wish for revenge.

Aenos stood silently in the shadows of the trees as he watched Crichton's movements.

As Kaarvok raised his battered arm, the blue glow of the device revealed his face from the shadow.

The words 'skeleton' and 'bones' sprung to Crichton's mind as he saw Kaarvok's molten and black face.

The metal plate in the side of his skull was the only thing undamaged.

The little blue lights seemed to glow like nothing had happened to it's owner.

"YOU WILL PAY!" Kaarvok shouted as he powered up his weapon and aimed at Crichton.

Crichton did not hesitate to throw the flames of the burning branch in Kaarvok's face.

As he reached for his face, the flames sprung to his arms and the device began to shudder and shock.

The damaged device electrocuted it's owner.

Kaarvok fell to the ground. Dead.

Silence.

Nothing but the sounds of bugs and fire.

Suddenly Aenos saw something familiar in the corner of his eyes.

The Peacekeeper vehicles, stashed away in a hole which was dug in the hillside, beneath the giant roots of the trees.

But Crichton walked in the opposite direction.

He seemed almost intoxicated or drunk.

But as a matter of fact, he was in shock.

And slowly recovering.

And he would never truly recover until he had left this planet.

"Crichton!" Aenos said. "I found the bikes. We can speed out of here!"

Aenos's eyes carefully followed the human through the dark woods.

"I don't really care anymore." Crichton replied. "Bikes can't go into space, can they? Or are these specially modified? Probably not."

Aenos followed Crichton, and approached him carefully as the human stopped to gaze at his reflection in the small pond or river which flowed in front of him, which seemed to cut through the land like a knife.

Two of the three moons reflected with a strange blue light into the still water.

It was the last thing Crichton saw before Aenos knocked him out.


	24. Merciless

Aenos did not feel sorry whatsoever.

He was doing his duty.

Not even a part of him felt sorry for what he was doing to Crichton.

He was betraying him.

Yes, Crichton did save his life twice, but that was Crichton's undoing.

Crichton should've left him to die in that cell. He should not have saved him.

If Aenos were in Crichton's position, he wouldn't have done the same.

Crichton's compassion was his weakness, and lead to his capture.

Aenos pulled Crichton onto one of the bikes.

He looked around him for a second, trying to see which way he should go.

Trying to see where the Peacekeeper base was.

However, it was impossible to find anything in this darkness.

Aenos's Peacekeeper training told him to wait for dawn, but he chose to ignore it.

He activated it the bike. The lights lit the area in front of the bike up.

A digital map on the bike's small console showed Aenos where to go.

He jumped on the vehicle and speeded away. With Crichton as his prisoner.

High above Aenos the Peacekeeper Command Carrier silently floated through Yo'brakh's orbit.

Three Marauders left their mother-ship for the second time, in their attempt to reinforce the soldiers on the surface of the planet, in the facility.

But their arrival did not go unnoticed.

Sensors warned Moxan's officers about the Marauders and it didn't take long for them to push some buttons, and activate the facility's defences.

Large turrets appeared on the roof of the facility, which began targeting the Marauders the moment they were activated.

Shots were fired and one Marauder was shot down.

The two others soared down, ignoring the loss of the other Marauder, and approached the facility with the intention of dropping soldiers on the roof.

One of the Marauders succeeded and managed to drop 4 soldiers onto the roof.

But in the short moment in which the Marauder hovered still in the air, the turrets automatically targeted the craft and shot it down.

The burning debris scattered all over the forest.

"Rooftop compromised. Aborting mission." the pilot of the third Marauder said to it's commander. "I'm returning to the Carrier."

The Marauder flew back to the skies, retreating to the Carrier whilst dodging the shots of the turrets.

Bracca listened in to his comms, and heard everything.

He saw four soldiers enter the facility through the broken window.

That was his reinforcements.

Four frelling soldiers.

He started the assault with 12 soldiers.

5 were killed in the battle which followed.

Bracca expected another 12 soldiers to reinforce him, but instead he got 4.

Frelling four.

He tasted blood in his mouth as he reloaded his gun and explained the renewed situation to the new soldiers.

"We managed to take the middle section of the facility." Bracca said.

"But the north section is still heavily guarded. Our primary task is still to rescue Scorpius, but the chances of actually doing this are diminishing with every second. Our enemy outnumbers us with 4 to 1. And they have an advantage over us: their security-system.

Overtaking their systems will make our attempts much easier, but we have the misfortune that their control centre is the most heaviest guarded place of the entire facility.

I have already sent some of my men to investigate the ventilation systems and pipes. There is a chance that we can use this system to our own advantage."

Bracca had the idea of gassing the enemy by throwing a poison grenade and gas into the vents.

However, there was a chance that Scorpius would be gassed as well, and the enemy could probably as well use gas masks, just like Bracca was planning to do.

Bracca wiped the sweat off of his forehead.

It was sometime in the middle of the night, but it was still pretty hot in the facility.

The air-conditioning Bracca felt the day before wasn't functioning in this part of the facility today. Probably on purpose.

"Grab your gear, men." Bracca said.

The time for them to act was approaching.

"Guns and grenades at the ready."

Scorpius was a very intelligent and resourceful person, but he wasn't immortal.

Even he needs help sometimes.

Bracca put on his helmet and looked at his men, who gathered around him in the silent hallway.

"Let's go."

The battle which followed as they opened the door to the next corridor was so loud that the noise of gunfire and explosions could be heard several miles away.

Aenos thought it was thunder, but he was convinced otherwise as he saw the facility.

He approached it as he drove with his bike right across the bright and still lake.

Three moons reflected in the cold water, and in the light of the second moon, the silhouette of a large Command Carrier was visible.

"We made it, Crichton." Aenos said to the unconscious human who sat behind him on the speeding bike.

But the sound of gunfire confused him.

"What the frell is going on?" he asked himself.

He was startled as he saw a large flame coming out of one of the windows of the large tower.

There was a war going on.

Aenos didn't know who the participants were, but he knew that ending his mission would be more difficult then expected.

He stopped the bike in front of the doors of the facility, and he carefully laid Crichton's body on his shoulder.

The weight of a grown man might be much, but not for a professionally trained Peacekeeper.

Crichton was easily carried.

What was Aenos to do next?

He expected his superiors to be waiting for him, or at least be surprised to see him standing with an unconscious Crichton on his back, but there was no-one there.

Aenos had tried to contact his superiors, but he was unable to do so, because the Xarai had scavenged the comms-device off of the bike.

"I have to find someone who can contact the Carrier." Aenos decided.

He discovered he was unable to open the doors. It angered the Commando.

He put Crichton down on the ground and searched the bike for a hidden compartment underneath the craft.

He found it, and in the compartment lay a pulse-pistol.

He aimed it at the door and fired at the lock.

Nothing happened to the giant, iron and rusty door.

He fired again. And again. And again.

After a while the lock began to disintegrate and with a final kick to the door it opened with a bang.

Aenos grabbed Crichton off of the floor and walked into the facility.

He wasn't expected.

"Who the frell are you?" voices suddenly said.

The doors were guarded on the inside by several Peacekeeper soldiers.

"Aenos Farren. Peacekeeper Commando. I am a friend. I brought Crichton."

"Crichton?" the commanding officer of the guards said to Aenos.

"Wasn't that the escaped fugitive?"

"I managed to capture him."

The guards put their weapons down, and gathered around Crichton's body, which Aenos had laid on the ground.

"So this is Crichton." One of them said.

Their dark helmets made it impossible to see their faces.

"The man which blew up both Scorpius's base as a Shadow Depository. The man which eluded both Captain Crais's grasp as Scorpius's. The man which lead that freak Scorpius to this base..."

"He is smaller then I expected him to be." another soldier said.

"I need two things. A comms-device. And an explanation." Aenos said to them.

As they handed him a comms-device, Aenos started talking.

"Now, what the frell is going on here?"

But the soldiers did not answer him.

"Haven't I seen you here before?" one of them said to Aenos. "Did you come here from the Carrier? Aren't you one of Scorpius's men?"

Because Aenos did not know of the situation, he also did not know that these were Moxan's men.

And they were ordered to kill everyone of Scorpius's men.

Guns were pointed at Aenos's face again.

But only four guns.

As one of the soldiers looked for his lost gun, a high-pitched and familiar beeping was heard.

Aenos knew what it was, because it was just a moment ago when he last heard it.

He looked down, and saw Crichton with his eyes opened, holding a overloading pulse-pistol in his hands.

Yet again.

"Crichton!" Aenos shouted, but it was already too late.

Crichton's trick seemed to work for a second time.

He threw it in the air and ran off.

Only Aenos and Crichton managed to escape the explosion which followed in time.

All of the guards were blown aside.

Aenos was also blown away by the explosion, and as he fell to the floor, one of the soldiers fell on top of him.

As he pushed him away and crawled back on his feet, he reached for his pistol and aimed it at Crichton.

But Crichton outsmarted him and knocked him down.

"You incompetent fool." Crichton said.

"You almost got yourself killed. And me."

Crichton bend over their dead bodies to take their guns and ammo.

The look in his eyes as he gazed upon their burned and battered bodies was cold and merciless.

He smiled as he reflected on the effectiveness of his actions.

This was not John Crichton.

This was Harvey.

He closed his eyes and listened to his heart as he felt the adrenaline rush through his veins, the emotions flow through his mind and the air in the room touch his skin.

It was a wonderful experience, which he had learned to treasure above all.

But enough was enough.

He had to go back to business.

He had to find Scorpius.

He opened the door to the facility, not knowing that he was entering a war-zone.


	25. Adrenaline

Rygel's chest heaved.

The little Hynerian embraced the moment of silence.

A moment without pain.

A moment where the Scarran, Artokh, did not torture him.

But it didn't hurt.

250 cycles aboard the Zelbinion, locked in a small cage and tortured by the insane Peacekeeper Commander Durka. That was pain.

Not this.

Rygel spit on Artokh's silly attempts to make him suffer.

The arrogant Hynerian Dominar laughed throughout the process, making Artokh extremely angry.

But laughing was the only thing Rygel could do, as he was bound with ice against the icy wall, unable to move and escape.

He was wet and sticky by the molten ice, which turned into water by Artokh's heat-induced torture.

Rygel watched his every movement closely, trying to desperately find out if he could use whatever was happening to his advantage.

"What is this noise?" Artokh shouted as he turned to Grunschlik.

"It's the sensors." Grunschlik answered like an obedient slave.

"They are detecting the approach of a ship."

Rygel's heartbeat went up.

It was Crichton! He came to rescue him!

Oh, wait, Crichton's dead. So that can't be.

Rygel smiled for a microt at his own mistake.

He had got used to the fact that Crichton would come to his rescue.

He was the only person on Moya who honestly cared for his fellow shipmates.

But he was dead.

Who else could attempt to save him?

Aeryn?

No, she was wounded, and couldn't care less about his fate.

D'Argo?

No, he probably would, but he has too much on his mind. His son, his girlfriend, and the fact that he took the responsibility to protect Moya on his shoulders. Something which used to belong to Zhaan.

Zhaan would've probably saved him, but she too was dead.

Chiana!

Yes! She would save him! There always has been some chemistry between both of them.  
You can call it honour amongst thieves if you will!

Chiana would rescue him!

At least, she was going to try.

Wouldn't she?

The sensors bleeped again.

"It's big." Grunschlik said. "And it's coming this way."

* * *

Explosions were all over the facility.

Gunfire accompanied it through the air.

The floor was covered in blood.

But all of this did not stop Harvey.

Cautiously he moved though shadows, with two guns in both hands.

His eyes were cold and brutal, his face was pale and his smile abnormal and heartless.

Harvey honestly enjoyed this sensation.

Fear and angst and adrenaline.

He liked those things already.

He was eager to join the battle, but the intelligence he had inherited from Scorpius told him otherwise.

He honestly did not expect it to work, but it did.

Harvey was able to take over Crichton's consciousness whilst John himself was unconscious.

Both minds could not exist at the same level, and because it was Crichton's mind and body, he was the one who had the access to it. But now he was unconscious, Harvey could step in.

He was now able to return to Scorpius.

"Bracca, can you hear me?"

Lieutenant Meeklo Bracca eagerly grabbed his comms-device.

Pulse-fire went over his head, but he ignored it.

"Lieutenant, can you hear me?"

"Scorpius!" Bracca responded. "Sir, I am glad to hear your voice."

"Likewise, lieutenant." Scorpius replied. "But this is not the time for conversations."

"Indeed, sir."

"Three soldiers and I are trapped in the control centre. We are cornered and outnumbered, but we do have their security-systems at our disposal. I am currently watching you through the camera's."

Bracca's heart jumped as he looked up.

There were indeed camera's overlooking the battle which took place in the corridor.

Bracca could see soldiers firing at them from the left corners of his eyes.

"We are experiencing the same problems." Bracca said as he grabbed his gun and opened fire.

"I don't know if I can get to you."

Bracca noticed a slight sad tone in his own voice, which he had never heard before.

"Take the stairs to your right. These lead to the upper levels." Scorpius said to Bracca over the comms.

"Go to the officer's lounge and blow a hole in the floor. Follow these instructions and there is a chance that we will make it out alive."

"Yes, sir."

Bracca put on his helmet once again and ordered his men to follow him.

"He's in the control centre." Harvey said to himself.

He had taken on of the comms-devices from one of the dead Peacekeeper soldiers which laid scattered across the floor like Christmas decoration, and had overheard some words of Bracca and Scorpius's conversation.

Harvey sat with his back against the wall, listening to his surroundings and the echoes of men's cries and deadly explosions combined with fatal gunfire.

But then suddenly it stopped.

Was it over?

A large explosion which blew up the wall in the corridor in front of Harvey convinced him otherwise.

The soldiers fired upon each other as they stepped through the enormous hole in the wall.

Flames spread everywhere.

Harvey ducked, knowing that these soldiers were in such a state, that they'd fire at anything.

Harvey found himself caught in a gunfire, as he crawled on the floor through dead Peacekeeper bodies and a rotting smell of death.

As a familiar pain in the back of his head started spreading, Harvey knew his time had come.

His scream was unheard in the noise of the gunfire.

"Where the frell am I?" John Robert Crichton Jr. said as his consciousness returned to the land of the living.

John had terrible timing.

His mind automatically pushed Harvey away as it woke up, making Harvey part of the background once again.

And now John was in control again.

The last thing he remembered was fire and water, before everything turned black.

John scratched his aching head as he tried to get up, but he changed his mind as he saw pulse-fire fly over his head.

John also noticed he had two guns in his hands.

"What the frell..."

* * *

Moxan slammed into the steel doors with his gloved fist.

Scorpius had escaped death, but not for long.

He had escaped into the control centre, using it's giant steel doors to make it impossible for anyone to enter.

Override codes had already failed.

Scorpius was able to override their overrides in minutes.

But that didn't matter.

Moxan built this place himself.

He knew how to get in there.

"Hand me those explosives and stand back!" he shouted.

* * *

Aenos woke up.

His skin was burning and he couldn't feel his left arm no more.

"Crichton..." he whispered. "You sunnavabitch..."

* * *

"Aenos, you sunnavabitch!" John shouted.

John realised what he must have done.

He took John here, planning to hand him over to Scorpius.

"He betrayed me!" John shouted as debris of grenade blasts went over his shoulders.

FLASH

"Of course he did." Harvey said. "You expected this."

Harvey walked around him in the bright white room, covered with blood.

"You're only pissed because you didn't get the chance to screw him first!"

"But how did I get here?" Crichton asked the neural clone.

"In the middle of this war-zone, with two guns in my hands?"

Crichton looked at him with his bright blue eyes.

"What are you not telling me?" he whispered partly to himself, but in such a fashion that Harvey heard it too.

For a moment they stared at each other, but then Crichton closed his eyes.

"You know what? Screw this! I'm leaving!"

FLASH

He avoided being hit by either guns or grenades and managed to get to the door which he believed to lead to the exit.

But as he opened the door Harvey stood in the doorway.

"No, John." he said. "I will not let you leave."

John stared at him.

Harvey looked so real. John could've sworn he was staring at Scorpius.

"Is that it, Harv?" John said disturbed. "Is this the end of our little friendship? I'm hurt. Now get out of my frelling way!"

"No, John." Harvey said. "You said it yourself. It's about your survival."

"I'll get this frelling chip out whatever way I want."

"There is no chance your plans will succeed." Harvey replied. "There are few who have the right technology and expertise to extract the chip out of your mind, without killing you in the process. Scorpius can."

"Yeah, I tried that, but that ended up with him trying to kill me regardless of my sacrifice."

The battle went on behind them.

Peacekeepers died while they were talking.

"Yes," Crichton said. "I still remember what happened at the Shadow Depository."

Harvey just looked at him.

"I'm not going to Scorpius." John said.

"But you will."

"Over my dead body." John replied.

"I hope not." Harvey said.

"FRELL YOU!"

John shot Harvey but the shots went straight through him.

They hit the wall behind him with a loud bang.

"This is pointless, John." Harvey said.

"The story of my life." John said.

Pain emerged from the depths of Crichton's mind.

But both ignored it, as they stared into each other's eyes.

Crichton felt all of his hatred against both Harvey and Scorpius rise from his guts as he attacked Harvey in his mind.

From Crichton's perspective this fight was grand and important. Perhaps epic.

From another man's perspective, Crichton looked like a man who was fighting for his sanity.

* * *

As Scorpius looked at the consoles in front of him, he could see the various hallways and corridors and chambers displayed by the camera's spread out through the facility.

Two Peacekeeper soldiers stood beside him.

Scorpius looked behind him when a large explosion was heard, which stunned his ears.

At first he thought it was Moxan, who finally managed to break through his own steel doors.

But he was wrong.

Debris fell to the floor as Bracca managed to blow up the floor of the chamber he resided and make a passageway to the lower level.

"Glad to see you, sir!" he said as the smoke cleared up.

"The feeling is mutual, lieutenant." Scorpius said. "Now find a way for me to get up there."

"Already taken care of, sir." Bracca said as his men lowered a metal ladder into the chamber below.

"Excellent work, Bracca." Scorpius said.

"Thank you, sir."

As Scorpius stood up from his chair to climb the ladder, he suddenly recognised something in the corner of his eye.

Something which was displayed on the console. Something which was recorded by a camera.

"Crichton..." Scorpius whispered.

"This is a most fortunate turn of events."


	26. War

"Talyn! Remain calm! Talyn, do not panic!"

Crais and Aeryn were thrown to the floor of Talyn's Command Deck by the extreme turbulence they just entered.

A large, blue and almost organic tunnel was visible on Talyn's viewscreen.

The speed with which they traversed through the wormhole was astronomical.

Talyn was getting pulled through by some invisible, but powerful force.

A force which Jack seemed to control.

The Ancient stood firm and comfortable on the deck.

He was the only one of the three left standing.

His eyes were wide open, and he stared at the wormhole like he was connected to it somehow.

But then Aeryn realised that those were not his real eyes.

Talyn screamed, but besides himself only Crais actually heard it.

The experience was overwhelming and confusing and dazzling and deadly.

Crais looked upon the Ancient with respect, but also fear.

What was happening?

Where was he taking them?

Aeryn couldn't help but look at the view-screen.

The large, bright inside of the wormhole seemed endless.

She noticed that the wormhole split into thousands of different branches which all ended up in different areas of space.

"Space and time is of no meaning, Aeryn." Jack said without looking away from the wormhole.

The blue light shined in his face.

"The wormhole can take you everywhere. From the furthest end of space, to the centre of the universe. From before time, to beyond time. From the beginning of life, to the end of life."

"Can it take us back?" Aeryn asked.

Jack smiled.

Jack guided Talyn through the wormhole, until it got spat out in a unknown region of space.

An unknown place.

An unknown time.

An unknown reality.

"Where are we?" Crais said.

His head was pounding and his senses were distorted.

Aeryn checked the sensors.

She noticed that Jack was slowly taking heavy breaths.

The trip through the wormhole took a lot of energy from him.

"I really don't know." Aeryn said, as she looked up from the console.

Her hands were trembling.

She looked up at the Ancient.

She looked up again at Crichton's father.

Aeryn knew that the Ancient was just using the image of Crichton's father to present him to them, but she couldn't help but notice the resemblance between Jack and John.

John...

"Where are we?" Crais said to Jack.

He was furious.

"Tell me now!"

"We are in a reality different then yours." Jack answered.

"What?" Aeryn said.

"Why the frell did you take us here?" she asked.

"I did this, so that you would be able to see the importance of the situation."

His mouth seemed to move strangely.

Even Aeryn's hands moved through the air in a strange manner.

Like her hand was followed by an echo. A visual echo of her hand.

"I do not care." Crais said. "You entered my ship without permission. You forced your presence upon us and dragged us through your wormhole to this godforsaken place."

A asteroid-field was visible in the view-screen.

A large asteroid blocked it's view on outer space.

"Now, creature," Crais continued. "Whatever your name may be, I ask you, to take us back!"

Aeryn thought about stepping in, but she eventually didn't, knowing that she was still too weak, and she felt that Crais was right.

"I cannot do that." Jack replied.

Although she was interested in Jack's motives and his relationship to Crichton, she just looked at Jack and did nothing.

Guns were automatically activated by Talyn and were aimed at Jack.

"I am afraid I must insist." Crais said ferociously.

But Jack did not react to Crais's threat.

Aeryn was growing afraid that Crais would actually let Talyn shoot Jack, but her fears were blown away as suddenly the asteroid moved away from the view-screen, and the most strangest and scariest sight was seen beyond the asteroid-field.

A war between Scarrans and Peacekeepers.

Aeryn looked at Jack, but he remained silent and cold.

* * *

"Harvey!"

John had grown used to the noise of the explosions and the rattling of guns as he defended his mind from Harvey's attacks.

"You know this won't get you anywhere, Harv!" John said.

"You know your chip can't take over my mind anymore! The connections would fry and we'd both die! Taking the wormhole-technology with us!"

"You are right, John." Harvey said. "I can't force my way into your consciousness anymore.  
Your death I cannot risk. But that does not stop me from doing this...!"

John's right arm stopped listening to his master, and instead began to attack him.

The arm grabbed John's throat and John tried desperately with his left hand to force it off.

"HARVEY! YOU BASTARD!" John shouted.

Crichton's legs suddenly also began to move without permission.

"You will go to Scorpius." Harvey said, whilst Crichton fought to control his limbs.

"If you like it or not."

* * *

"Blast it!" Moxan ordered.

The fierce explosion blew the steel doors of the control centre out of it's place, making it much easier to open it.

The Peacekeeper soldiers easily pushed it aside and Commander Moxan entered the chamber with a demonic look in his eyes.

"He's gone." Moxan said as he looked at the giant hole in the ceiling.

"But not far..."

He walked to his security-consoles, which were all turned off.

"Get the system back on-line!" Moxan shouted to his scientists who rushed to obey his commands.

"We have to get control of the facility again! Scorpius must not leave this place alive!"

The scientists fiddled with their equipment and were able to activate the systems.

But that wasn't all they managed to activate.

Several bombs were placed under the consoles, waiting to go off when someone activates the consoles.

The chamber was filled with a giant ball of fire, which spread through the north section of the facility, killing all of Moxan's men until it managed to find a way out and disperse.

"That was brilliant, sir." Bracca said as they left the enclosed room.

Scorpius smiled.

"I know." he simply replied.

* * *

Aenos dragged his wounded self through corpses and debris.

"You're not going to get away this time, Crichton." he muttered to himself.  
"I'll promise you that."

* * *

Because of the destruction of the entire system, the facility lost all power; the primary systems, such as lights and cooling now operated on the secondary power-source.

"We are ready to fire at your position." the officer on board the Command Carrier said through the comms.

Crichton (and Harvey) overheard the conversation through a comms-device which laid next to a dead Peacekeeper on the ground.

"No." Scorpius said.

"Sir, this facility is a graveyard." Bracca said. "There's nothing for us here anymore."

"Yes, there is." Scorpius replied.

He looked in Bracca's eyes with a glare which terrified the lieutenant slightly.

The look in Scorpius's eyes was that of an obsessed man.

"Crichton is here!" he said to Bracca.

* * *

FLASH

Crichton was suddenly swimming in the open sea.

Nothing but ocean stretched out in front of him. Whichever way he looked.

Harvey was comfortably sitting in a small fishing-boat, wearing his fishing-gear and unleashing his fishing-rod at the ocean.

A box laid besides the neural-clone, which had the words: 'shark-bait', written on it.

"He's coming for you, Crichton!" Harvey shouted at the human, who was desperately trying to keep his head above the water.

The overwhelming "Jaws"-theme was heard in the background as a large, black shark emerged from the water and swam towards Crichton.

The only thing which was visible above water was the shark's fin.

"He's coming Crichton! And you can't escape!"

Water splashed into his face.

An invisible force seemed to drag him down and made him unable to swim.

"It is pointless to resist!"

Perhaps it was pointless to resist.

Perhaps he should just give up.

Perhaps by killing John, Scorpius would finally give him the rest he had always wanted, ever since he arrived here in the Uncharted Territories.

As these sad thoughts filled Crichton's mind, he was pulled down into the water and everything turned dark.

Everything was quiet underwater.

It was so peaceful.

Crichton could see Harvey's boat from underwater and also the shark, who was swimming towards him with abnormal speed.

The shark's eyes glowed with a malevolent and strange light, reflected by the sun which shined above the water.

As Crichton closed his eyes, he forgot all of his troubles for a moment, and thought of Earth.

He was never going to see his father again.

Not DK.

Not his sisters...

Crichton wake up with a different view at life.

He couldn't just give up!

What kind of a way to die is that!

Aeryn would've never wanted him to give up!

She would've reminded him of what he himself had said all those years ago.

"If I'm going down, I'm going down slinging."

As he said it, he noticed that the words were clear and loud, not muffled and indistinct, like John suspected to hear.

But he wasn't underwater no more.

He stood in the hallway of the facility.

Harvey stood in front of him.

Almost like he was waiting for Crichton to speak.

"This is my life." John said.

"And nobody's going to tell me what to do."

Harvey looked at him with a inspired, but arrogant look.

"Then you condemn yourself to death." he said.

As John lifted the two guns he held in his hands to his shoulders, he just smiled.

"Hardly."

John left the hallway, with only one thing on his mind.

He had a plan.


	27. Weapon

"We made a huge mistake." The last remaining officer serving under Moxan's command said to his men.

8 soldiers stood around him, in the scorched control centre.

"Moxan is dead. Everyone else is dead. And look at this place."

Smoke lingered in the air, rising slowly to the ceiling.

"We should never have challenged Scorpius." the officer said.

"What am I hearing?" a slightly distorted female voice spoke.

"Is that cowardice I sense in your voice, officer Trennik? Or doubt?"

"I do not doubt the decisions of the High Council. And I do not fear Scorpius."

"Then why do I hear you saying you're retreating?"

"Look at this place!" Officer Trennik hollered at the view-screen.

"It is in tatters. A ruin. A graveyard. This once proud and glorious place is now nothing more then a memory."

"That is Scorpius's fault." The woman said.

"No, it is ours."

"I do not tolerate this kind of talk, officer Trennik." The woman replied fiercely.

"Tolerate whatever you like, but I'm not sending anymore men to their deaths.

Too many Sebaceans have died already today."

"The High Council demands it from you, officer Trennik."

"No, Commandant." Officer Trennik spoke to Grayza,

"Any Peacekeeper who neglects his duties, and who refuses to obey the High Council's wishes, will be executed, do you understand me, officer Trennik?"

"I understand you perfectly. But you understand this: the High Council is not here."

"I doubt it, officer Trennik." Grayza said.

Rifles were aimed at the officer.

His own men turned on him.

"What are you doing? Don't you understand anything I've just said? They're sending you into your deaths!"

The soldiers did not respond.

They only pointed their rifles at their former commander.

"Put those weapons down." Officer Trennik ordered needlessly. "Now!"

But the soldiers did not obey.

"By order of the Peacekeeper High Council," Grayza spoke. "I order your life to be terminated."

"Do not listen to her! Do not..."

But the soldiers already fired, killing their commander with only a few shots.

"You did well." Grayza said.

"Now, I order you to go after Scorpius."

"Kill him?" one of the soldiers asked.

"No." Grayza said. "I want him alive."

* * *

"Prime the weapon." Scorpius said.

He stood on the Command Deck of his Command Carrier, which lead the Peacekeeper Armada into war against the Scarrans.

This was another Scorpius.

One out of many.

And many out of one.

The scientists who manned the consoles on the Command Deck obeyed his commands and entered the final sequences which would activate the most devastating weapon of all.

* * *

Jack's face was emotionless and cold as he stared out the window.

An large battle took place not far from their position.

"Hide in the asteroid-field!" Aeryn said to Crais. "It's best if we do not get ourselves involved..."

But it was already too late.

Their presence was already noticed by both Peacekeeper and Scarrans.

* * *

"There's a ship coming out of the asteroid-field!" one of Scorpius's scientists reported as he observed the results of the sensor-sweep.

"Sensors say it's a Peacekeeper ship, however I've never seen a Peacekeeper ship like this before."

Scorpius approached the scientist and looked at his console.

Talyn appeared from the asteroid field with a reckless attitude.

Scorpius did not recognise it.

This Scorpius had never seen the Leviathan gun-ship before.

"Ignore it." Scorpius said, as his mind worked on top speed. "It is of no importance. Focus on the main line."

Prowlers left the battle area as Scorpius's Command Carrier moved forward in preparation for the attack.

"The vessel is behind our ranks, sir!" the scientist said as Scorpius moved away.

"It can easily outflank our capital ships and weaken our defences against the Scarran fleet!"

A sudden Stryker attack on the Command Carrier created a little turbulence on the Command Deck.

"Send a Prowler Squad to intercept the vessel." Scorpius said. "Destroy it."

"Wait!" Scorpius's sub-officer said as he looked at the screen.

"I recognise that ship."

* * *

Scarran Strykers attacked Talyn unexpected, soaring over them as they fired salvo after salvo.

Talyn was still a little bit dazed by the effect of the wormhole, and did not expect an attack so soon.

The blasts caused severe damage, and a console exploded on Talyn's Command Deck.

Crais pulled Aeryn down before she would be caught in the explosion.

But Jack wasn't unaffected by the attack.

Crais and Aeryn found his unconscious body lying on the floor as they looked up.

* * *

"Our sensors are reporting that one Command Carrier is leaving the main fleet and is charging up a weapon of some kind. The energy-signature is unknown."

As he said it, the Scarran officer looked at his leader.

Emperor Staleek sat silently but daunting in his Imperial chair in the centre of the Command Deck of his Imperial Dreadnought.

"Scorpius." he whispered.

The look on the Emperor's face as he saw the Command Carrier leave the main Peacekeeper fleet was intimidating.

His hand moved to his personal console, where he sent an encrypted and personal message to Scorpius.

* * *

Scorpius heard the incoming message at a frequency which was programmed so that only he could hear it.

"Scorpius." A dark and rumbling voice said.

Scorpius recognised it immediately as the Emperor.

"Stick with our plan, Scorpius. Do like we have agreed, and this war will soon be over..."

"This war will be over much sooner then you think." Scorpius said to himself as he abruptly terminated the transmission.

* * *

"Scorpius!" Staleek shouted as he found out Scorpius ended his transmission.

As the Command Carrier glided through space, aiming a abnormal weapon built with unknown alien wormhole-technology in their faces, Staleek knew he had been betrayed.

"All ships fire at that Carrier!" Staleek shouted at his men as he stood up from his chair.

He was tall for a Scarran, and because of this he looked even more intimidating.

"Destroy that vessel!"

* * *

Strykers rushed to intercept the Carrier, but would never make it in time.

Dreadnoughts fired salvo's that only scratched the surface of the Carrier when fired from such a distance.

Nothing could stop Scorpius's war machine.

* * *

The Carrier began to glow a strange blue light as it charged it's weaponry at full power.

"The weapon is ready, sir." the scientist said to Scorpius.

For a moment Scorpius looked into the air, seeming to absorb the atmosphere and seeming to taste victory on his lips.

"Fire at will."

* * *

"You will pay for this treason Scorpius!" Staleek said to himself as he watched the Carrier from his Imperial throne on his Dreadnought.

He knew that this would be his end.

* * *

The Carrier's weaponry all pointed in the same direction, and it fired two long, shiny blue beams at the front of the Carrier, where the beams seemed to merge into one perfect blue light.

After this, the beam shot into space, and hit the Imperial Dreadnought.

* * *

"What the frell?"

Aeryn still stared at the view-screen, but this time she saw something she had never seen before.

Even Crais was astonished by what happened next.

* * *

The beam hit the Dreadnought with incredible force, but instead of exploding, the Imperial Dreadnought imploded.

It was crushed into atoms as a large, blue and burning hole was ripped into space, pulling the other craft and the rest of the fleet along with it.

Everything burned and died.

Space itself was sucked into oblivion, until nothing existed at that point.

No life.

No time.

No reality.

Even nothing itself was sucked into the abyss, until only death remained.

* * *

"Perfection." Scorpius whispered.

"Finally I have my revenge. But it isn't over yet."

"Stop it!" The sub-officer said firmly to the scientist. "Shut it down. End it. Before we all go in there with them!"

"I can't sir." the scientist said. "It is not responding!"

The officer pushed him aside and took over his console.

With some smooth button-pushing the officer fired another blue beam, which entered the abyss and stopped the dying.

In the end, everything was silent.

* * *

On Yo'brakh, Scorpius and Bracca split into two groups in order to find Crichton, who they believed to be somewhere in the facility.

"The neural chip forces him to come back." Scorpius said to Bracca.

"Crichton will come to us."

Bracca understood what he said.

He was there at the Shadow Depository. He had seen Crichton and how he had been affected by the chip Scorpius placed in his mind.

But Crichton escaped, didn't he?

Bracca wandered through the debris of the facility, followed by the soldiers under his command.

As they walked through the facility, they found several Peacekeeper soldiers who served under Scorpius, and who laid wounded and unable to move on the floor.

"What's your name, soldier?" Bracca asked one of the two soldiers they saved.

The Peacekeeper uniform and gear hid his face from Bracca.

"My name's Lou, sir." the soldier said. "Lou Costello."

Crichton couldn't help but smile as he told that name to Bracca.


	28. Vengeance

"What was I supposed to do again, Pilot?" Joolushko asked as she climbed down into Pilot's neural cluster.

"Try to repair as much as you can." Pilot's calm voice said above her.

Joolushko shook her head.

"All right," she said. "But I'm not much of a mechanic."

She dropped herself to the ground and examined the damage.

"I know how to work machinery and devices and stuff." Jool went on as she picked up broken cables from the ground. "I learned that in my archaeological expeditions and field-trips I went at school and in my studies. But I'm not much of an expert with cables and technical stuff.

I'm more of an observer. You know?"

"I understand." Pilot said. "But please try your best anyway. I will appreciate any help you can offer me."

"All right." Joolushko said. "Here I go."

She grabbed on of the cables and attached it to a colon of wires.

Pilot screamed and other cables started to tear apart.

Quickly she yanked the cable out of the colon.

"I'm sorry, Pilot!" she shouted to Pilot. "I told you I wasn't much of a mechanic.

I'm no expert at this, quite the opposite!"

Joolushko started to cry.

"I'm useless. I can't even do this right!"

"You are not useless, Joolushko." She heard Pilot say over the comms-device she had been given by one of the DRD's.

"You did well."

"Apart from everything starting to blow up!" Joolushko replied.

"Moya and I cannot expect you to have it right at the first attempt. Try again." Pilot said.

Joolushko wiped her tears away.

"All right, Pilot. I'll try again."

She held the cable tightly in her trembling hands as she attached the cable to, what seemed to be centre colon, near some similar-looking cables who were also attached there.

She jumped as she heard Pilot gasp the moment when she pushed the cable into the colon.

"Pilot? Are you all right?"

"SCARRAN DREADNOUGHT APPROACHING!" he shouted.

Joolushko had repaired the power to the outer sensors, and Pilot immediately spotted the Dreadnought which approached them with deadly accuracy and immense speed.

"STARBURSTING NOW!"

Blue light surrounded Moya's hull as the Leviathan fled into Starburst.

* * *

FLASH

"You probably think this is a smart move." Harvey said to Crichton.

"But it isn't."

John tried to ignore the words of the neural-clone as it kept buzzing in his ears.

"Scorpius will recognise you." Harvey went on. "Remember the Gammak Base?"

"I remember that perfectly well." John answered in his mind.

FLASH

John did not intend to be captured.

He was planning to steal another Marauder, disguised as a Peacekeeper.

Maybe kill Bracca and Scorpius while he was at it.

That was the only thing John could come up with to escape the planet.

To escape death, for that matter.

"Follow me." Bracca said.

Crichton followed like a obedient soldier, supposedly looking for himself, in this tattered and destroyed facility, with corpses lying everywhere.

"Sir, I see movement!" one of the other soldiers suddenly said.

In a dark and silent sleeping quarters, a few scientists and Peacekeeper techs were hiding under their beds and inside closets, hoping to avoid death.

"Keep your hands where I can see them!" Bracca ordered.

The scientists obeyed.

For a moment, Crichton was afraid Bracca was going to kill them all, but he didn't.

He accepted their surrender.

"Enough Sebaceans have died today." Bracca thought.

Bracca should know. He has killed half of them himself.

He had their blood on his hands. And on his face.

Bracca's forehead was covered in dried-up blood.

His own, and that of twenty other Peacekeepers.

5 of them were his enemies.

Bracca felt horribly about killing fellow Peacekeepers.

But he had to kill them, in order to survive.

In order to carry out his orders.

"Escort these prisoners to the Marauder." Bracca said to four of his men.

"You three stay with me." Bracca said to two others, and to Crichton.

Bracca reported the capture of the scientist to Scorpius.

Crichton heard Scorpius's voice on the other end of the comms-link, and it sent shivers down his spine.

"You did well, Bracca." Scorpius said.

"Sir, if I may say so..." Bracca said.

A gut feeling told him it was unwise of him to say this to Scorpius.

"If we cannot find Crichton, shouldn't we not return to the Carrier?"

An alarming silence erupted.

"Crichton is here." Scorpius said. "HE was HERE. The neural-chip in his mind is sending him back to me, and I cannot risk losing him. Not again."

"Sir..."

Bracca didn't say it.

He even did not want to think it.

But he did.

He suspected Scorpius's obsession with Crichton going too far.

"He IS here, Bracca." Scorpius said. "I can smell him."

Crichton felt his heart beating in his neck.

"But perhaps you're right. Perhaps we should return to the Carrier. Things have gone from bad to worse here. It would be unwise to linger here any longer."

Bracca felt his uneasy feelings towards Scorpius fading.

Reason has not abandoned Scorpius. And it never will.

"Call for another Marauder to pick us up and meet me in the lobby." Scorpius said.

Bracca agreed and ended the conversation.

"Let's go." He said to his men.

Crichton followed.

"This was a bad idea." he thought to himself.

"It's not too late to surrender, you know." Harvey whispered in his ears.

Crichton's hand began moving out of his own again.

"Don't even think about it, Harv." John said as he focused his energy on keeping Harvey in line.

* * *

As Chiana closed the Transport Pod's doors, Jothee felt the cold wind leaving the Pod.

"Take us back to Moya!" Chiana shouted, wet and shivering.

"You got it." Jothee replied as he steered the Pod towards outer space.

"Come on, D'Argo." Chiana muttered as she laid his body on the floor and tried to wake him up.

"Come on, D'Argo, wake up."

She shook his head and shook his body.

She tried anything to wake him up.

"WAKE UP; DAMN YOU!"

She slammed his chest.

Chiana knew he was still alive.

He had to be.

She could feel his heart in his neck, but he did not respond.

"How's he doing?" Jothee hollered whilst he flew the Pod out of the planet's atmosphere.

"He won't wake up!" Chiana replied, as he hit D'Argo's chest hoping to get the water out of his lungs.

"He won't FRELLING wake up!"

"Please, dad, wake up." Jothee muttered as he watched the blue sky fade into black.

"Live."

"You're cold." Chiana said. "That's it, isn't it? You need heat!"

She took off her coat and laid it over D'Argo's chest.

"Please don't die here, D'Argo." Chiana whispered. "Not now. If you die in my arms, I'll kill you."

She smiled briefly as she heard her own words, but she swallowed them as she looked upon D'Argo's unconscious body again.

Nothing seemed to wake him up.

Nothing but the faint beating of D'Argo's heart told Chiana that D'Argo was alive.

"D'Argo!" she shouted.

"What the frell..." Jothee muttered.

"Where's Moya?"

Suddenly the Pod shook and stopped moving.

The turbulence caused Jothee to fall to the ground.

He didn't see what happen next.

The Pod was pulled in by a Scarran Dreadnought.

From this point on, they were prisoners to the Scarrans.

* * *

Crichton imprinted the entire facility in his memory.

He looked for all exits and entrances. Windows and doors. Anything which he could use to escape.

* * *

Bracca entered the lobby and immediately saw Scorpius standing in the centre, surrounded by the three soldiers which escorted him.

"Any sign of Crichton?" Bracca asked.

"Nothing." Scorpius said.

He was outraged by the fact he couldn't find Crichton, although he saw him through the security-camera.

"Perhaps he has left the facility." Bracca said.

"Perhaps." Scorpius said cold.

His rage could be read in his eyes.

The black suit reflected the pale light from the lamps above them.

Shadows hid their faces.

"But there is no need to worry, sir." Bracca said. "There is no way Crichton could have left the planet. He's still out there. We can still find him."

Scorpius looked at him silently.

"A part of me agrees with you." Scorpius said. "But another part of me says to me that we will never find Crichton again."

"We will, sir." Bracca said.

"Indeed." Scorpius replied.

Suddenly his eyes wandered to Bracca's soldiers.

"I thought you said you were with three soldiers?" Scorpius asked.

Bracca turned around and saw only two.

"I was." he said.

"Three soldiers accompanied you. Two remain." Scorpius summed up.

His mind went into overdrive as he finally draw his conclusion.

"Crichton!" he said enraged.

"He fooled us! He put on a Peacekeeper uniform!"

"Sir, I assure you, I couldn't have possibly known..."

"Find him!" Scorpius said.

The soldiers scattered and left through several corridors. Bracca left as well.

Scorpius remained silent as he stood in the centre of the room.

Watching and waiting...

"I know you're here, Crichton." Scorpius said.

His words echoed through the destroyed facility.

"I can smell your fear."

For a moment, everything was silent.

"You can smell my fear?" John Crichton suddenly said.

"I doubt it."

Crichton emerged from the shadows with two pulse-pistols aimed at his foe.

Scorpius smiled fearless.

"What's the matter, Scorpy?" John said.

His eyes sparkled insane.

"Cat got your tongue?"

John walked slowly into the light. He walked around Scorpius. Slowly.

John did not blink, and never took his eyes off his nemesis.

Or his guns.

"I only have to make one motion. One small movement with my finger. And you're dead. And I'm in paradise. Because when you're dead, it means my dreams must've come true."

"Well then." Scorpius said chilling. "What are you waiting for?"

Scorpius's eyes pierced through Crichton and almost seemed to see the wormhole-knowledge Crichton carried with him in his subconscious mind.

"Kill me." Scorpius said to Crichton.

Crichton's eyes seemed to burn.

"Do it." Scorpius said, knowing that the chip would not let him do it.

Crichton shot Scorpius in the right-leg.

Scorpius fell surprised to the ground, clutching his leg in great pain.

"That has to hurt!" Crichton said.

Perhaps this comment was meant to be funny, however there was no sign of humour in Crichton's expressions.

"But the pain you are feeling now is tiny, compared to the pain you put me through."

With every step Crichton took, he moved a bit closer to Scorpius.

"You tortured me. You hunted me. You hurt me."

A single tear rolled down Crichton's left cheek.

"You killed Gillina!"

Crichton shot Scorpius at his right shoulder.

He fell on his back, with his face to the ceiling.

As Crichton stood over Scorpius's trembling body, his shadow cast a darkness over his face as John stood right between Scorpius and the light above him.

"...You killed Aeryn..." John whispered.

His heart bled.

John aimed his gun at Scorpius's head.

"Crichton!" Scorpius tried to say. "Crichton!"

"But killing you would only mean the beginning of my vengeance. My bloodlust. My rage."

The gun trembled in Crichton's hand.

He wanted to pull that trigger, but Harvey wouldn't let him.

John struggled and fought, but he couldn't get himself to pull that trigger.

He put all of his strength into that single movement.

That one decisive moment...

"Crichton!"

Bracca appeared with 4 soldiers at his side, guns drawn and firing upon Crichton.

Crichton looked one final time in Scorpius's eyes, before he ran away, and left Scorpius trembling and bleeding on the floor.

"Crichton!"


	29. Twice

Space was quiet. Calm and soothing, but also cold.

Very cold.

Talyn tried to StarBurst as the Command Carriers surrounded him, but Crais advised him not to, knowing that it was pointless to resist. The Carriers would destroy Talyn before he even had powered up his engines. Or his weapons.

Talyn chose to accept Crais's decision and he waited for the Peacekeepers to react.

The large, frightening Carriers came closer and closer.

"He is hurt badly." Aeryn said.

Talyn heard her gentle, but also powerful voice, which made him feel much more comfortable staring at the approaching Carriers. Messengers of death and destruction. But also brothers. Because they were all Peacekeeper. Including Talyn.

"At least I think he is." Aeryn said. "I'm not sure. I am neither a doctor or an expert on Ancients."

In the background, they could hear a Peacekeeper voice talking over Talyn's comms.

"Unknown vessel. This is the Peacekeeper Command Carrier 'Genesis'. We demand a full and unconditional surrender."

As Aeryn examined Jack's wounds more closely, Crais responded to the Peacekeeper's hail.

"My name is Captain Bialar Crais." Crais said. "I surrender. Repeat: I surrender. "

"Then prepare to be boarded." the Peacekeeper said before terminating the transmission.

"Help...Jack." Crais said. "I will try to negotiate with these Peacekeepers."

"Good luck." Aeryn said as she carried Jack's body out the door, towards Talyn's infirmary.

Talyn saw how a Marauder emerged out of the Carrier called 'Heritage' and made it's way to board Talyn.

Crais saw it too.

"You don't have to be afraid." Crais said to Talyn.

"Don't worry." Talyn said to his mentor. "I'm not afraid of them. Not anymore."

* * *

Crichton ran like hell.

Every cell in his body hated himself for not killing Scorpius.

A frenzy of pulse-blasts and fire-bolts chased him down the ruined and destroyed facility.

He remembered walking down these beautiful corridors just one day ago.

And now look at it.

The marble floor was covered in blood and dust and dirt. Red tapestries with the Peacekeeper logo marked on them were either burning or had already turned into black dust.

Corpses were lying everywhere; Crichton had to be careful not to trip over them.

Suddenly he realised he had two guns in his hands.

He decided to fight back.

John turned around and started firing.

All of his shots missed their targets.

"Damn!" he shouted.

The Peacekeepers fired again and would've almost blown Crichton's nuts off if he hadn't jumped away in time.

"Crichton!" Bracca shouted. "We can do this the easy way, or the hard way! Surrender now, and your death will be painless!"

Bracca had followed Crichton, but he wasn't glad he did.

He'd rather stayed with Scorpius to help him, but Scorpius ordered him to pursue Crichton.

"Stop telling me to surrender!" Crichton said. "I already have a voice in my head who won't stop buzzing in my ear about it!"

"What's it going to be Crichton?" Bracca shouted.

Crichton wiped the sweat off of his forehead.

He sat with his back against a large white pillar in the middle of the destroyed hall, as he noticed that one of the Peacekeeper corpses had a unused grenade in his hands.

Crichton gently took it out of the hands of the dead soldier.

"I've always preferred the hard way!" Crichton shouted as he pulled out the pin and threw the grenade at his opponents.

The blast was enough to scatter all of the debris in the chamber around the room, and it created enough smoke for Crichton to escape unseen.

The Peacekeepers started firing through the smoke, hoping to hit Crichton, but he was already gone.

* * *

Footsteps were heard all over the icy facility.

Sensors were ringing and alarms were going off.

Grunchlk was thrown aside by the Scarran as even he was unable to determine what was going on.

"Dozens of men!" Grunchlk shouted. "And they're all coming this way!"

"Get out of my way!" Artokh growled as he headed for the door.

The door opened, and 7 Charrid warriors entered the chamber.

"Charrids!" Artokh rumbled as he aimed his arm at the warriors and gave them a taste of heat.

"Artokh!" a voice shouted.

Artokh recognised the voice.

As the Charrids stepped aside, a small but intimidating figure approached Artokh.

One of the Scarran Leading Caste.

War Minister Ahkna.

She looked upon the dead Charrids, and then onto Artokh.

"You just killed two of our allies." Ahkna said.

"Allies?" Artokh repeated surprised. "Has the Scarran Empire really forged an alliance with the Charrids? I find that unbelievable."

"With the Charrids as our allies, the Scarran Empire has now doubled in strength." Ahkna said.

Ahkna spoke with an arrogant and aristocratic tone.

"Now tell me, where is the Hynerian?" Ahkna asked.

Artokh turned around, to find out, to his own surprise, that Rygel the XVI had escaped.

Artokh aimed his anger towards Grunchlk, who hollered because of the intense heat which was aimed at his face.

"I don't know where he is!" Grunchlk said. "I know as much as you do! I didn't see what happened!"

Artokh ended the heat-probing, but kicked him instead.

"You have are a disgrace to the Scarran Empire, Artokh." Ahkna said.

"You are a failure, and a waste of good flesh."

Artokh growled.

"Luckily, for your sake," Ahkna continued. "we managed to capture the Luxan and the Nebari as they attempted to flee the planet. I have brought them aboard my Dreadnought, and I plan to interrogate them as soon as possible. Finding Crichton is our top priority."

"The Emperor..." Artokh tried to say, but the small Scarran female interrupted him with her intimidating voice.

"The Emperor will not hear about this. Not by you, and not by anyone."

"He will find out sooner or later." Artokh said.

"Oh, I'm sure he will." Ahkna said. "But when he does, it will already be too late for him to stop me."

Ahkna walked even closer to much taller Artokh.

"Yes." Ahkna said. "What you are thinking is correct. I intend to overthrow Staleek. But that is not important right now. What IS important, is where YOUR loyalties lie.

With Staleek? Or with me?"

Artokh knew that if he did not tell her the right answer, he would die.

"With you." Artokh said reluctantly.

"I thought as much."

Rygel watched their conversation from one of the ventilation ducts above the chamber.

It was warm in there. Hot air was being pumped through the ducts so that it would not be as cold inside as it was outside. That way it was much comfortable inside the facility.

Still cold, but not as freezing as outdoors on the cold, icy and inhospitable planes of the Ice Planet.

"They've got Chiana and D'Argo." Rygel thought to himself. "I'm all alone!"

Rygel began thinking about ways to get off of this planet.

Transport Pod?

Captured by the Scarrans.

Did Grunchlk have a ship?

Yes, but Rygel bought it. Without fuel.

Did this facility have any fuel? Stocked somewhere to be used on occasions like this?

Rygel doubted it.

And even if he could find fuel, and managed to activate the Pod and fly away, he'd still have to evade the Dreadnought and find Moya, who has probably StarBursted away by now, in order to evade capture.

"Yotz, this is impossible." Rygel said.

But there was one thing he could do.

"I surrender!" Rygel said as he climbed down. "I surrender! Please don't hurt me!"

The Scarrans looked up and saw the Hynerian climbing down the wall.

"The Hynerian." Ahkna said. "Take him."

Rygel let himself be caught, in order to survive.

And with Rygel as their prisoner, the Scarrans and Charrids headed for their Scarran Transport Vessel and flew to the Dreadnought.

"At least I'm still alive." Rygel thought to himself.

* * *

Crichton looked up.

The moonlight shined directly in his eyes as he looked outside, through a broken window.

Outside, he could hear the roaring of a Marauder's engine.

"The Marauder." Crichton said to himself.

Then he realised this was going to be the second time he was going to steal a Marauder.

And then he realised that this was the second time he was doing something for the second time.

"Say that three times fast." Crichton said.

Shots were fired at him again.

"There he is!" Bracca shouted.

As Crichton climbed out of the window and onto the roof, Bracca pursued, but before he had the chance to enter the room, he was ambushed by Moxan's men, who fired upon them from all corners.

Several of Bracca's men were killed, and Bracca and the remainder of his squad were pinned down inside a crater of debris against the wall of the round chamber, unable to pursue Crichton.

They couldn't even move without risking their lives.

Crichton opened the back door of the low flying Marauder.

Surprisingly enough, there was no-one inside. Apparently the ship was left on the auto-pilot.

Crichton quickly jumped into the pilot's seat and started to calculate his trajectory to the stars.

Little did he know that he was being expected...

Crichton powered up the engines and engaged in flight.

The Marauder slowly increased in speed as it made his way towards the dark heavens.

Crichton did not hear the faint sound of footsteps in the back of the Marauder, and neither did he see how Aenos approached him from the shadow.

Aenos attacked Crichton by grabbing his head and throat.

Crichton gasped for air as he let go of the ship's controls and reached for his head.

"Hello Crichton." Aenos said as he tightened his grip. "I hope you recognise my voice."

Crichton's face turned red in his attempts to escape Aenos's grip, but he still could not breathe.

The Marauder kept on climbing towards space, until it eventually began to leave orbit.

With a punch to his guts Crichton managed to free himself.

He quickly gasped for air in the few seconds he was not attacked by Aenos, and he drew his gun to aim it at the Peacekeeper.

Aenos kicked it out of his hands and attacked Crichton again.

But Crichton drew his second gun, which Aenos did not see, and shot his opponent onto the floor of the Marauder.

"This is the Command Carrier 'Kronos'. This is your first and final warning. If you do not transmit the proper codes, then you will be destroyed. End of transmission."

Crichton looked at the view-screen.

In the distance, a small dark figure was growing larger and larger.

Crichton's Marauder was flying straight at Scorpius's Command Carrier, and was about to be shot at.

As the Command Carrier fired it's cannons, Crichton turned to the bleeding Aenos who lay on the ground.

"What are the codes?" Crichton asked.

Aenos spit blood on Crichton's shoes.

"What are the codes?" Crichton asked again after kicking Aenos in the face.

The Marauder trembled and crumbled as it sustained heavy damage because of the Carrier's attack.

"Give me the codes!" Crichton shouted.

"I will never give you those codes!" Aenos shouted. "If I give you those codes, you'll escape!"

"But if you don't give me those codes, we will both be blasted into dust!" Crichton shouted.

"I bet Scorpy wouldn't like it if I get killed, now would he?"

Aenos faced a dilemma.

Either Crichton would die, or Crichton would escape.

The choice was easily made, but Aenos wasn't glad to make it.

"They will find you again, Crichton!" Aenos said after he gave Crichton the codes. "I promise you that you will never truly escape the Peacekeepers! You will spend your entire life running in your futile attempts to..."

Crichton kicked him in the face again, knocking him unconscious.

When Crichton transmitted the codes, the Carrier stopped firing, just like they said they would.

At first, Crichton feigned a landing-trajectory, but at the last moment he speeded away into the asteroid-field, and in the confusion which erupted on the Command Deck of the Carrier, Crichton got away.

He flew into the asteroid-field, looking for Moya's last known location.

Crichton figured it would be the most logical place to look.

"Moya?" he transmitted carefully over the comms channel. "This is John Crichton. Pilot? Can you hear me? Moya?"

* * *

Aeryn thought of Zhaan as she laid the Ancient on a bed in Talyn's infirmary.

She was usually the expert on medical issues, and Aeryn definitely needed her help right now.

Without the Ancient she would never get back to Moya.

"Aeryn..." Crais's voice suddenly said over the comms.

"Aeryn..."

"Yes, Crais?" Aeryn answered.

She was neurotically searching through Talyn's limited medical supplies, hoping to find anything she could use to help Jack.

"Could you please join us at Command..." Crais asked.

"I'm a little bit busy here..." Aeryn answered.

"Please come, Aeryn..." Crais said.

His voice sounded strange.

"You have to see this..."

Aeryn left the Ancient lying on the bed as she headed to Command.

The red walls of Talyn's corridors reflected what she was feeling right now.

Anger.

Jack forced them to come here, saying things about Crichton being alive, Crichton being dead, wormhole-technology and Scorpius's Command Carrier.

The Ancient seemed desperate.

Like he was desperately trying to cover up for a mistake he had made.

Aeryn approached the door to Command and tried to open it, but it wouldn't listen.

"These controls are malfunctioning." Aeryn said as she tried opening it for the third time.

This time it did work, as the door opened and Aeryn stepped onto Command.

She saw Crais standing at the back.

A Peacekeeper soldier stood in every corner.

And in the centre, stood a man, obviously a Peacekeeper officer of some sort, with his back turned towards Aeryn.

That man reminded her of something.

A feeling. A memory. A smell.

He seemed familiar.

Slowly the man turned around.

Aeryn was shocked to see who it was.

"Now there's a familiar face." Sub-officer John Crichton spoke.

Aeryn's heart stopped beating.


	30. Epilogue

Crais looked into Aeryn's eyes, only guessing what she must've been thinking at that exact point.

Crichton.

He died, but yet he stood in front her once more.

He smiled at her like he always did.

He looked at her like he always had.

But things were not the same as they once were.

No-one was the same as they used to be.

But Crichton...

"Where had Jack taken them?" Aeryn thought to herself.

"This weird place..."

This place where Crichton worked for the Peacekeepers!

He even commanded them

But in his eyes, Aeryn could see that in his heart, Crichton would never truly be one of them.

The same eyes Crichton always had, but the innocent light that used to shine there was gone.

"Hello Aeryn." Crichton said.

His voice was different.

Grittier.

Tougher.

"How long's it been?" he asked her.

She stood there like a statue, staring at John, experiencing emotions she had never felt before.

"This must be another universe. A different universe." Aeryn thought.

She remembered overhearing one of Stark's conversations with Zhaan, about parallel realities and different universes.

A place which is created by choice.

When someone's path leads them down a fork in the road, reality splits into different realities.

One of those paths will be the real path.

But the others will be unrealised.

Something which could happen, but didn't.

Aeryn began considering this theory as she looked upon Crichton.

Everything pointed into this direction.

This man was Crichton, but different.

A Crichton which could have been, but never was.

She now realised where she was.

Talyn had been sent into an unrealised reality.

A reality where Crichton had not died.

"Probably the last time I saw you was at the Gammak Base." Crichton went on.

"The Gammak Base." Aeryn asked surprised, recognising the name.

A reality where instead of being hunted by the Peacekeepers, Crichton joined them.

"Do you remember now?" Crichton asked.

A reality where Peacekeepers had wormhole-weapons.

Aeryn suddenly realised something.

"Was that why Jack had sent them here?" she thought to herself.

"Was-was that the last time we-we saw each other?"

Her body was trembling, but she took deep breaths as she forced herself to act normally.

"It was." Crichton said.

The Peacekeeper uniform Crichton wore was slimming and looked like it was meant for him since the day he was born.

"I didn't think I'd ever see you again." Crichton continued.

"Neither did I." Aeryn honestly answered.

"And especially not like this..." Crichton said.

"What do you mean?" Aeryn asked.

The Peacekeeper soldiers who stood in the corner, waited anxiously for an order.

"What is HE doing here?" Crichton asked.

"Wh-"

"CRAIS..." Crichton clearly said.

"This ship is Leviathan right? Moya's son? I recognised it immediately as I saw it. But I never...NEVER...expected to see CRAIS as his captain..."

Guns were pointed at Crais.

"No!" Aeryn said. "Don't kill him!"

Crichton turned her head to Aeryn.

"You're actually protecting this bastard?" Crichton spoke.

"Yes, I am." Aeryn replied.

"Much has changed since I left Moya..." Crichton said.

"Perhaps they have." Aeryn replied.

"Crichton..." Crais spoke. "I know you have your reasons to hate me, but consider this..."

He began to understand, just like Aeryn, that things were different here.

In this reality, Crichton never got the chance either to reconcile, or to have his revenge upon Crais.

His feelings towards Crais just gathered inside of Crichton and eventually piled dust, until today, when Crais entered his life once more.

With Crichton's love at his side, pleading to him not to kill Crais.

"Talyn chose ME to be his captain." Crais said. "And he did it by his own volition, not by force."

"I bet he did." Crichton replied.

"Crichton." a voice suddenly spoke through a comms-device.

It was Scorpius.

"Crichton here."

"What's the status on the Leviathan gun-ship?" Scorpius asked.

Aeryn approached John.

"John." Aeryn said to him.

Crichton looked right into her eyes.

"Please." she said.

The words Crichton was about to say would determine what would happen to Talyn, Crais and Aeryn.

He looked on final time at Crais before responding to Scorpius.

"Everything seems to be fine here, besides some damage to their engines. I'm assigning some techs to help them."

"Help them if you must." Scorpius replied. "But don't stay there too long. I need you to run some more tests on the weapon."

"I'll come as soon as I'm ready." Crichton spoke as he ended the conversation.

"Damage?" Aeryn asked.

"Yes. Our sensors saw it as we landed here on board. Probably done by the asteroids as you flew in. Nothing serious."

Aeryn looked at Crais.

"He is right. Talyn senses that his engines are malfunctioning."

"See?" Crichton said. "I told you."

"But you don't have to send in techs to help us..." Aeryn said.

"I want to. I want to help. I want to talk. Of course, if that's all right with you..."

Aeryn looked into his blue eyes, wanting to touch him. Wanting to kiss him.

But knowing that it wasn't him.

Not the real Crichton...

"Is it all right?" Crichton asked.

Crais closed his eyes, but the image of Aeryn and Crichton staring into each other's eyes kept on haunting him in his mind.

"No, Talyn..." he whispered, so that no-one heard it. "No..."

* * *

"Begin interrogating the prisoners." Ahkna said. "Starting with the Nebari."

Chiana screamed and swore as she was torn away from Jothee's side.

Jothee tried to aid her, but the cell-doors were pushed in his face, keeping him imprisoned in the hot, dark cell.

Chiana was taken by two brute Scarran guards who followed Ahkna into the interrogation room.

She was bound and strapped to a large metal construction, and she found herself looking up at the face of a Scarran female.

"You ARE one of Crichton's shipmates." Ahkna said. "Tell me...where is he?"

Chiana spit in her face and laughed at her.

"It is unwise to mock me, child." Ahkna said as she gave a little nod to one of the Scarrans.

A large light above her was activated, and it sent painful shocks throughout her body, electrocuting every cell of her body.

As the light was deactivated, Ahkna asked the same question.

"Where is John Crichton?"

* * *

Jothee jumped up as he heard his father wake up with a scream.

"Dad!"

D'Argo woke up from his long sleep. The last thing he remembered was ice.

Lots of ice.

"Finally." Rygel said. "That took you long enough."

"He fell into a frelling lake!" Jothee said.

"He's had worse." Rygel replied.

"I probably have." D'Argo said.

"How do you feel?" Jothee asked.

"I feel like I can burst into flames any minute now." D'Argo said.

It was frelling hot throughout the vessel.

"Where am I?" he asked as he looked around.

"In a cell." Rygel answered. "Aboard a comfy Scarran Dreadnought."

"A Dreadnought?" D'Argo said. "If I ever get my hands on that frelling Grunschlk..."

"You might want to rethink about ending that sentence." Grunschlk said.

He sat in the shadows, next to his close friend, the Diagnosian.

Both were also imprisoned by the Scarrans.

"...then I'll rip his frelling head off!" D'Argo said.

"Whoa now, whoa now..." Grunchlk said as he stood up. "I'm in the same boat as you are! I'm a prisoner, just like you!"

"You sold us out to the Scarrans, didn't you?" D'Argo said.

"I had to!" Grunschlk said. "Or they were going to kill me!"

"Well, that's perfectly fine by me." D'Argo continued.

"Calm down, D'Argo." Rygel said. "Calm down. There's no point in slaughtering each other already. The Scarrans are very well capable of doing that themselves."

"Where's Chiana?" D'Argo asked.

He looked at Rygel first, but he didn't answer him, but the look in Jothee's eyes told him enough.

"She's being interrogated right now." Rygel said. "It won't be long before they are done with her."

"What do you mean by that?" Jothee asked.

"They are going to ask her about John Crichton." Rygel said. "But the problem is, that she doesn't know where he is. No-one knows."

"Crichton's alive?" D'Argo asked.

"That's what the Scarrans believe." Rygel said.

"Crichton is dead!"

"Is he really?" Rygel replied. "Did you see him die? No! You saw his vessel being destroyed. But the Scarran survived the explosion. And that's reason for the Scarrans to believe that Crichton survived the explosion too."

"That's impossible." D'Argo said.

"Perhaps..." Rygel said.

At that moment the cell-doors were opened and a tall Scarran walked in, dragging Chiana's body in his hands, before throwing her onto the floor of the cell.

As he left, she began to moan.

"Chiana, are you all right?" D'Argo asked as he bent over her.

"I'm fine." Chiana said softly. "If they want to hurt me, they will have to come up with something better then that!"

She smiled, but D'Argo knew that she was only trying to act strong.

She couldn't even get up without help.

Chiana mumbled something.

"I'm fine." D'Argo said. "Really, I've recovered fully..."

"No..." Chiana said as she tried to say it out loud.

"STARK IS HERE..." she said.

"Stark is here?" D'Argo asked.

"Stark? Here on board?" Rygel repeated.

* * *

"You did well to contact me..." Emperor Staleek said.

"I will inform the Elders about Ahkna's plans. In the meantime, I order you to do everything in your power to sabotage Ahkna's plans."

"Yes, my Emperor." Artokh replied.

"My spies have informed me that Crichton has become a much discussed topic in the Peacekeeper High Council meetings. If we would act now, we would jeopardise our position and give our plans away. This would ruin years of preparation and careful planning.

Ahkna must be stopped, before the Scarran Empire is thrown into a war it is not ready for yet."

"Yes, your Highness." Artokh said as he ended the transmission.

Now Artokh knew what he had to do...

TO BE CONTINUED

The story continues in the third and final chapter in the 'Sacrifices'-trilogy:

"Wars and Choices".


End file.
